LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


PRINCETON,  N.  J. 

0 


Purchased  by  the 

Mrs.  Robert  Lenox  Kennedy  Church  History  Fund. 


Division^U.LjJ 


Section* JBSL7 


i 


THE  NATIONAL  HISTORY  OF  FRANCE 

EDITED  BY 

FR.  FUNCK-BREMTANO 
With  an  Introduction  by  J.  E.  C.  BODLEY 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


IF  msm, 


V 


1  o  c 


THE  NATIONAL  HISTORY  OF  FRANCE 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

BY 

FR.  FUNCK -BRENTANO 


EL 


TRANSLATED  FROM y THE  FRENCH  BY 

IZABETH  OWE  ILL,  M.A. 


G.  P.  PUTNAM’S  SONS 


NEW  YORK 
1923 


MADE  AND  PRINTED  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


AUTHOR’S  PREFACE 


(TO  THE  FRENCH  EDITION) 

THE  quotations  in  the  following  pages  are  very  numer¬ 
ous  :  the  majority  in  old  French.  In  some  cases  they 
have  been  shortened  and  the  language  and  spelling 
modernized.  The  bibliographies  at  the  end  of  the  chapters  do 
not  pretend  to  completeness.  The  studies  published  on  the 
history  of  the  Middle  Ages  are  infinite  in  number.  Only  the 
documents  and  works  which  have  been  most  used  are  mentioned. 
We  have  made  great  use  of  the  works  of  our  predecessors,  and 
especially  those  of  our  masters,  Jacques  Flach,  Achille  Luchaire, 
Siméon  Luce,  and  those  of  Messieurs  Ch.  V.  Langlois,  Emile 
Mâle,  Joseph  Bédier,  and  Alfred  Coville.  It  is  a  pleasant  duty 
to  express  to  them  our  gratitude  and  admiration. 


Fr.  F.-B. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/middleagesOOfunc 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  CENTURIES  OF  ANARCHY  1 

II.  THE  FORMATION  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE  4 

III.  THE  EPICS  49 

IV.  THE  ELEVENTH  CENTURY  65 

V.  THE  CRUSADES  99 

VI.  A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ARMOUR  :  LOUIS  LE  GROS  126 

VII.  THE  COMMUNES  142 

VIII.  THE  TWELFTH  CENTURY  159 

IX.  THE  MINSTRELS  181 

X.  THE  UNIVERSITY  198 

XI.  THE  CATHEDRALS  213 

XII.  LOUIS  VII  241 

XIII.  PHILIP  AUGUSTUS  250 

XIV.  A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ERMINE  :  SAINT  LOUIS  289 

XV.  THE  MINIATURES  321 

XVI.  TOWN  ASSOCIATIONS  AND  TRADE  ASSOCIATIONS  336 

XVII.  PHILIP  THE  FAIR  352 

XVIII.  THE  END  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE  422 

XIX.  THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR  431 

XX.  A  MODERN  KING  :  LOUIS  XI  533 

INDEX  551 

vii 


f 


CHAPTER  I 


CENTURIES  OF  ANARCHY 

Ninth  and  tenth  centuries.  The  Barbarian  invasions.  De¬ 
struction  of  the  towns.  Impotence  of  the  sovereign  authority. 

Civil  struggles — Anarchy.  Destruction  of  Roman  civilization. 
Absence  of  governance  in  society. 

THE  night  of  the  ninth  century  .  .  .  What  is  its  course  ? 

Dimly  the  records  give  a  glimpse  of  a  people  scattered 
and  without  guidance.  The  Barbarians  have  broken 
through  the  ramparts.  The  Saracen  invasions  have  spread  in 
successive  waves  over  the  South.  The  Hungarians  swarm  over 
the  Eastern  provinces.  44  These  strangers,”  writes  Richer, 
“  gave  themselves  over  to  the  most  cruel  outrages  ;  they  sacked 
town  and  village,  and  laid  waste  the  fields.  They  burned 
down  the  churches  and  then  departed  with  a  crowd  of  captives, 
and  no  one  said  them  nay.” 

The  realm  they  have  burnt,  wasted,  and  spoilt, 

Great  numbers  they  carry  off  captive  bound, 

Little  children  and  women  of  high  birth, 

Noblemen  too  with  blows  they  drive  off  on  foot. 

( Ogier  the  Dane ,  v.  401.) 

The  Normans  from  the  north  penetrate  by  way  of  the  rivers 
to  the  very  centre  of  France,  44  skimming  over  the  ocean  like 
pirates.”  Chartres,  in  the  heart  of  the  realm,  was  wont  to 
take  pride  in  its  name,  44  the  city  of  stone,”  urbs  lapidum.  The 
Normans  appear,  and  Chartres  is  sacked. 

William  le  Breton  boasts  the  antiquity  and  wealth  of  the 
town  of  Autun  ;  but  the  Barbarians  have  scattered  these  riches 
and  its  site  is  overgrown  with  weeds. 

4 4  The  country  is  laid  waste  as  far  as  the  Loire,”  says  the 
chronicler  of  Amboise,  44  so  completely  that  where  once  were 

A  1 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


prosperous  towns,  wild  animals  now  roam.  The  plain  where 
once  the  harvests  ripened  now  knows  only 

‘The  thistle  and  the  sharp-thorned  briar.’” 

(Virgil,  J Bucolics,  v.  39.) 

And  Paris  ?  44  What  shall  I  say  of  her  ?  ”  writes  Adrevald. 

44  That  town  once  resplendent  in  her  wealth  and  glory,  famed 
for  her  fertile  lands,  is  now  but  a  heap  of  ashes.” 

In  the  course  of  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries  all  the  towns 
of  France  were  destroyed.  Can  one  imagine  the  slaughter  and 
plunder  concentrated  in  such  a  statement  ? 

In  the  little  country  villages  the  houses  crumble  to  dust, 
the  walls  of  the  churches  are  full  of  cracks,  their  roofs  gape 
wide,  the  tabernacles  are  overgrown  with  weeds  while  ivy 
clings  to  their  capitals.  The  house  of  God  has  become  a  den 
where  foxes  burrow  and  birds  of  prey  have  their  nests,  where 
one  may  see  the  lidless  eyes  of  the  owl  shine  unblinking  through 
spiders’  webs. 

Powerless  to  resist  the  invaders,  many  men-at-arms  join 
them.  They  plunder  together,  and  as  there  is  no  longer 
any  supreme  authority,  private  quarrels,  of  man  against  man, 
family  against  family,  of  district  against  district,  break  out, 
are  multiplied,  and  never-ending.  44  And  three  men  cannot 
meet  two  without  putting  them  to  death.”  44  The  statutes  of 
the  sacred  canons  and  the  capitularies  of  our  ancestors  have 
become  void,”  writes  Carloman  in  his  palace  of  Verneuil  (March 
884).  Private  wars  become  common.  44  In  the  absence  of  a 
central  authority,”  says  Hariulf,  44  the  stronger  break  out  into 
violence.”  44  Men  destroy  one  another  like  the  fishes  of  the 
sea  ”  (Council  of  Trosly). 

There  was  nothing  but  attacks,  rescues,  captures,  and  re¬ 
prisals,  which  one  can  picture  from  the  story,  told  by  Richer, 
of  a  leader  who  was  conducting  his  army  over  the  land  from 
which  the  enemy  drew  his  supplies.  He  ravaged  it  with  such 
fury  that  44  he  did  not  leave  even  her  cabin  to  a  poor  old  woman 
in  her  second  childhood.” 

There  is  no  longer  any  trade,  only  unceasing  terror.  Fear¬ 
fully  men  put  up  buildings  of  wood  only.  Architecture  is  no 
more. 

2 


CENTURIES  OF  ANARCHY 


In  the  time  of  Charles  the  Great,  and  under  his  great 
military  power,  it  would  have  been  possible  to  discern  a  society 
in  dissolution.  And  how  much  more  was  the  disorder  to 
manifest  itself  afterwards.  At  the  end  of  the  tenth  century 
was  there  any  remnant,  ever  so  small,  of  the  social,  political, 
and  economic  conditions  established  in  Gaul  by  the  Romans, 
or  even  introduced  after  their  time  in  rough  fashion  by  the 
Barbarians  ? 

Everything  is  changed.  The  monk  Paul,  who  lived  in  the 
eleventh  century,  speaks  of  a  collection  of  charters,  the  most 
ancient  of  which  dated  from  the  ninth  century  :  “  What  changes  ! 
The  rolls  preserved  in  the  archives  of  our  abbey  show  that 
the  peasants  of  that  time  lived  under  customs  which  those  of 
to-day  know  no  longer  ;  even  the  words  which  they  used  are 
not  those  of  the  present  day.”  And  further  on  :  “I  have 
found  the  names  of  places,  persons,  and  things  changed  since 
that  time  to  such  a  degree  that  not  only  have  they  disappeared, 
but  it  is  no  longer  possible  to  identify  them  ;  far  from  having 
preserved  them,  men  do  not  even  know  them  ”  (Cartulary  of 
Saint-Père). 

The  peasant  has  abandoned  his  ravaged  fields  to  avoid  the 
violence  of  anarchy.  The  people  have  gone  to  cower  in  the 
depths  of  the  forests  or  in  inaccessible  regions,  or  have  taken 
refuge  in  the  high  mountains. 

The  ties  which  united  the  inhabitants  of  the  country  have 
been  burst  asunder  ;  customary  and  legal  usage  have  broken 
down.  Society  has  no  longer  any  governance. 

Sources. — Chron.  de  Nithard,  ed.  Pertz,  Scriptores,  ii.  642-72  ;  Chron. 
de  Nantes,  ed.  R.  Merlet,  Paris,  1896  ;  Chron.  des  comtes  d'Anjou ,  ed. 
Halphen  and  Poupardin,  1913  ;  Richeri  historiarum  libri  IV,  ed.  Waitz, 
Scriptores  rerum  germanicarum  in  usum  scholarum,  1877  ;  Adrevald, 
Miracles  de  S .  Benoit,  ed.  Duchesne,  Histories  Francorum  scriptores,  iii. 
1661  ;  Chron.  d'Hariulf,  ed.  Lot,  1894  ;  Garin  le  Loherain ,  translated  by 
P.  Paris  (1862). 

Historical  Works. — Benj.  Guérard,  Prolégom  au  polyptique  de  Vàbbé 
Irminon,  1845  ;  Fustel  de  Coulanges,  Histoire  des  institutions  de  V ancienne 
France,  1879-97,  6  vols.  ;  Jacq.  Flach,  Les  Origines  de  l’ancienne  France, 
1886-1917,  4  vols.  ;  L.  Reynaud,  Les  Origines  de  l'influence  française  en 
Allemagne  (950-1150),  1913  ;  Imbart  de  la  Tour,  Histoire  de  la  nation 
française,  edited  by  G.  Hanotaux,  tome  iii.,  Histoire  politique  des  origines 
à  1515  (1921). 


3 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  FORMATION  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 

The  Family. — Social  life  is  narrowed  to  the  family.  The  motte 
of  earth  and  wood.  The  head  of  the  family.  Extension  of  the 
family.  The“Mesnie”  (household).  The  Fief . — The  household 
in  extending  forms  the  fief.  The  baron  is  the  head  of  a  family. 
Reciprocal  duties  of  lord  and  vassal.  Sentiments  of  devotion 
and  affection  which  unite  them.  The  serfs.  The  stone  keeps. 

The  feudal  hierarchy.  The  Town. — The  feudal  castle  is  a  work¬ 
shop.  Beginnings  of  trade.  The  castle  is  peopled  by  bourgeois. 
Coucy.  Construction  of  Ardres.  Castles  and  towns  at  the  end 
of  the  eleventh  century.  Lords  of  towns.  First  communal 
charters.  Meilhan-en-Bazadais.  The  Lignages.  The  big  towns 
of  the  Middle  Ages  were  formed  by  a  union  of  fiefs.  The  com¬ 
munal  assembly.  The  King. — The  French  throne  in  the  second 
half  of  the  tenth  century.  Rivalry  between  the  descendants 
of  Charles  the  Great  and  those  of  Robert  the  Strong.  Election 
of  Hugh  Capet.  He  represents  the  feudal  baron  on  the  throne. 

The  King  is  the  head  of  a  family.  The  Queen  directs  the  royal 
ménage.  Authority  of  the  royal  family.  The  great  officers 
personal  servants  of  the  sovereign.  The  royal  household.  The 
resources  of  the  Crown.  The  King  as  judge.  Royalty  the 
pinnacle  of  the  feudal  hierarchy.  The  monarch  has  an 

ecclesiastical  character. 

IT  is  in  the  midst  of  this  anarchy  that  the  work  of  social 
reconstruction  is  to  be  accomplished  by  the  only  organ¬ 
ized  force  remaining  intact,  under  the  only  shelter  which 
nothing  can  overthrow,  for  it  has  its  foundations  in  the  human 
heart  :  the  family.  In  the  midst  of  the  storm  the  family 

The  Family  endures>  grows  stronger,  and  draws  together. 

Obliged  to  suffice  to  its  own  needs,  it  creates  the 
instruments  necessary  to  it  for  agriculture  and  mechanical 
labour,  and  for  armed  defence.  The  State  no  longer  exists,  the 
family  takes  its  place.  Social  life  is  confined  to  the  fireside  ; 
4 


FORMATION  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 


life  in  common  is  limited  to  the  bounds  of  the  house  and  its 
surroundings,  to  its  walls  and  enclosure. 

It  is  a  little  society,  near  to  but  isolated  from  similar  little 
societies  formed  on  the  same  model. 

The  French  countryside  has  taken  on  again  an  aspect  of 
primitive  wildness.  Over  the  uncultivated  lands  spread  virgin 
forests — waste  stretches  where,  nevertheless,  here  and  there, 
preferably  on  the  heights,  can  be  discerned  modest  groups  of 
habitations,  each  of  which  forms  the  domain  of  that  little 
State,  the  family,  in  which  the  germs  of  social  life  are  preserved. 
The  family  dwells  in  its  domain,  girt  round  with  a  stockade  and 
protected  by  ditches.  The  palisade  is  called  the  44  hericon  ”  ; 
it  is  formed  of  thin  stakes  planted  obliquely  in  the  soil,  with 
the  sharp,  aggressive  points  blackened  with  fire.  In  the  middle 
of  the  enclosure  is  a  mound,  formed  of  the  soil  taken  from  the 
ditches,  on  which  is  built  a  wooden  structure,  a  tower,  the 
future  keep.  It  is  the  residence  of  the  master.  In  the  enclosure 
lives  the  family,  including  relatives,  companions,  and  servants  ; 
there  it  dwells  with  its  cattle,  weapons  mingling  with  the 
instruments  of  labour.  It  has  there  dwelling-places,  stables, 
sheds,  storehouses,  and  barns. 

Some  of  these  wooden  towers  will  still  exist  in  the  eleventh 
century.  The  monk  Aimoin,  of  Fleury-sur-Loire,  was  to  describe 
one  of  them.  It  stood  at  the  Cour-Marigny,  not  far  from  Mon- 
targis  :  44  The  residence  of  Séguin  was  a  wooden  tower.  In 
the  upper  story  dwelt  Séguin  with  his  family  ;  there  he  spent 
his  time,  took  his  meals,  and  slept  at  night.  In  the  lower  part 
was  a  storehouse  where  were  kept  all  things  needed  for  daily 
life.  The  floor  of  the  upper  part,  made  of  long  planks  shaped 
with  an  axe,  rested  on  arches.” 

At  the  top  of  the  tower,  a  44  guette,”  or  watchman,  scans  the 
horizon.  Near  the  top  the  tower  is  surrounded  by  a  path  for 
patrol  purposes.  There  is  no  opening  from  the  ground  up  to  the 
first  story,  where  there  is  an  entrance  door  reached  by  a  wooden 
staircase,  which  can  be  quickly  destroyed.  The  tower  on  its 
mound,  which  dominates  the  exterior  line  of  enclosure  bounded 
by  a  ditch,  is  itself  immediately  surrounded  by  a  rampart 
protected  by  another  ditch,  over  which  has  been  thrown  a 
drawbridge,  also  easily  destructible.  Finally,  within  the  large 

5 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


enclosure  a  circular  spot  marked  out  by  rough  stones  is  reserved 
for  meetings  held  under  the  direction  of  the  head  of  the  family. 

Bordering  this  group  of  erections  are  to  be  noticed  embank¬ 
ments  of  earth  resembling  tumuli  ;  they  are  the  graves  of 
ancestors,  or  of  dead  relatives.  They  are  so  arranged  as  to 
serve  as  a  first  line  of  defence.  All  these  structures  are  of 
wood,  except  the  mound  proper,  the  banks  and  tumuli  formed 
of  heaped-up  earth. 

Many  years  later,  the  historian  of  William  the  Marshall 
was  to  mention  one  of  these  primitive  mounds  which  remained 
between  Anet  and  Sorel  (1180)  :  An  old  abandoned  mound 

Which  was  but  poorly  fashioned 

Close  girt  by  a  palisade  ...  (v.  3935.) 

It  was  enclosed  by  a  deep  ditch.  And  even  down  to  our 
time  there  have  remained  in  the  Gironde,  at  the  place  called 
la  Tusque  (Sainte-Eulalie  d’Ambarès),  some  vestiges  of  these 
erections,  the  humble  beginnings  of  the  castles  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

The  fortified  mounds  (mottes)  increased  rapidly  in  number 
in  France  during  the  second  half  of  the  tenth  century.  From 
the  beginning  of  the  eleventh,  mention  is  found  of  defensive 
buildings  of  stone,  erected  on  high  ground  difficult  of  approach 
and  protected  by  ravines  or  marshes  ;  nevertheless,  the  wooden 
keeps,  built  in  the  tenth  century,  are  to  remain  in  great  numbers 
in  the  following  century.  They  are  to  be  repaired  and  kept  up, 
so  that  they  will  be  found  still  in  the  time  of  Philip  Augustus. 

The  marches  were  well  defended, 

From  Bonsmolins  to  Arches 
There  was  not  stone  or  wooden 
Castle  which  was  not  well  garrisoned. 

( Guillaume  le  Maréchal ,  v.  811.) 

There  lived  the  family,  under  the  rule  of  its  natural 
head. 

At  the  beginning  of  our  history  the  head  of  the  family 
recalls  the  paterfamilias  of  ancient  times.  He  commands  the 
group  which  surrounds  him  and  bears  his  name  ;  he  organizes 
the  common  defence,  apportions  the  labour  according  to 
individual  abilities  and  needs.  He  reigns — the  word  is  in  the 
6 


FORMATION  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 


texts — as  absolute  master.  He  is  called  “  lord.”  His  wife, 
the  mother  of  the  family,  is  called  44  lady,”  domina. 

Within  each  of  the  fortified  residences  we  have  described, 
are  produced  all  things  necessary  for  the  support  of  those  who 
live  there.  These  people  make  use  on  the  spot  of  things  which 
they  have  made  themselves.  Exchanges  are  no  longer  made  ; 
and  when  these  are  resumed  they  will  be  made  first  of  all 
between  immediate  neighbours,  from  one  “  motte  ”  to  the 
next.  For  the  rest,  life  is  simple  :  it  is  agricultural  life  without 
movement.  A  man  suffers,  loves,  works,  and  dies  in  the 
place  where  he  was  born.  The  head  of  the  family  is  at  the 
same  time  soldier  and  farmer,  like  the  heroes  of  Homer.  The 
lands  which  he  cultivates  are  grouped  round  his  dwelling-place. 
To  make  use  of  a  term  of  the  Economists,  they  are  44  agglom¬ 
erated  ”  there. 

The  family,  under  the  direction  of  its  head,  is  able  to  build 
its  dwelling  and  to  manufacture  scythes  and  ploughs.  In 
the  interior  courtyard  glow  the  forge  fires,  where  arms  are 
fashioned  on  the  loud  anvil.  The  women  weave  and  dye 
stuffs. 

The  family  has  become  for  men  a  country — the  documents 
of  the  period  call  it  patria.  And  each  one  loves  it  with  an 
emotion  the  more  intense  because  he  has  it  all  round  him. 
He  sees  it  live  :  he  feels  immediately  its  strength  and  beauty 
and  also  its  sweetness.  It  is  for  him  a  strong  and  cherished 
armour,  a  necessary  protection.  Without  the  family,  of  which 
he  is  one  of  the  elements,  he  could  not  live. 

Thus  are  formed  the  sentiments  of  solidarity  which  bind 
the  members  of  a  family  one  to  the  other.  The  prosperity  of 
one  will  ensure  that  of  his  relatives  ;  the  honour  of  the  one 
will  be  the  honour  of  the  other,  and  consequently  the  shame 
of  one  will  fall  on  all  the  members  of  the  44  line.” 

These  sentiments  are  to  grow  strong  and  develop,  and  to 
assume  ever  more  power,  in  proportion  as  the  family  itself 
develops  and  the  work  accomplished  through  and  by  the 
family  becomes  more  notable  ;  when  the  44  house  ”  has  been 
built  and  the  44  line  ”  has  spread.  For  the  family  thus  con¬ 
stituted  is  not  to  remain  limited  to  father,  mother,  children, 
and  servants. 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Already  it  has  grown.  The  spirit  of  solidarity  which  binds 
its  different  members  together,  strengthened  by  the  necessities 
of  the  time,  keep  the  various  branches  joined  to  the  trunk. 
The  younger  sons  and  their  offspring  remain  grouped  round 
the  eldest  and  continue  to  receive  from  him  a  common  guidance. 
This  family  in  the  larger  sense,  which  includes  the  younger 
sons  and  their  children,  the  cousins,  the  servants,  and  the 
workmen  attached  to  the  house,  takes  the  name  of  4  4  mesnie  ” 
( ménage ) — mesnie  from  the  Latin  mansionata ,  house.  This 
social  group,  sprung  from  the  family  and  preserving  its  char¬ 
acteristics,  this  44  greater  ”  family,  is  destined  to  play  a  very 
large  part  in  the  first  period  of  our  national  history. 

The  44  mesnie  ”  includes  the  family,  the  relatives  united 
round  the  head  of  the  principal  branch,  the  servants,  all  those 
who  live  round,  for,  and  through  the  44  house.”  At  the  head 
of  the  house  is  the  lord,  invested  with  the  character  of  a  patron, 
paternal  like  the  authority  he  wields.  An  old  saying  ran  : 
44  Like  lord,  like  house  ”  ;  as  we  say  now  :  Like  father,  like  son. 

The  household  (mesnie)  includes  the  kinsmen  and  the  most 
faithful  relatives  by  marriage.  They  are  fed,  reared,  instructed 
in  work  and  soldiering  with  the  nephews,  children,  and  other 
relatives.  The  spirit  which  prevails  in  the  44  mesnie  ”  remains 
strictly  that  of  a  family.  In  several  provinces  of  France, 
notably  in  Burgundy,  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries 
the  word  44  mesnie  ”  still  means  a  house  in  the  concrete  sense. 
Certain  rights  are  given  in  fief  over  some  44  mesnies  ”  in  a 
village. 

In  course  of  time,  through  the  growth  of  the  family  and  the 
ties  of  a  fictitious  relationship  which  attaches  to  it  many 
strangers,  the  44  mesnie  ”  comes  to  include  a  very  important 
group  of  men.  The  private  44  mesnie  ”  which  depends  immedi¬ 
ately  on  the  lord  will  have  become  so  numerous  by  the  twelfth 
century  that  its  forces  will  suffice  for  a  military  expedition 
when  it  is  not  a  case  of  a  44  great  war.”  In  feudal  struggles 
a  44  mesnie  ”  will  be  seen  defending  or  taking  a  town.  Lambert 
d’Ardres,  in  the  twelfth  century,  will  speak  of  the  44  infinite 
multitudes  ”  who  compose  the  great  seigniorial  44  mesnies.” 
The  brother  of  the  Provost  of  Bruges,  according  to  Galbert, 
ruled  over  a  44  mesnie  ”  of  3000  friends  and  relatives. 

8 


FORMATION  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 


The  “  mesnie  ”  has  its  eyes  fixed  on  its  head,  its  lord.  It 
assists  him  with  its  counsels,  it  supports  him  in  time  of  trouble  ; 
the  strong  men  follow  him  in  his  expeditions. 

United  around  their  lord  it  is  the  duty  of  those  who  form 
the  4  4  mesnie  ”  to  love  one  another  as  members  of  one  family, 
so  that  indeed  this  reciprocal  affection,  deep  and  devoted, 
which  binds  the  members  of  the  household  ( mesnie )  gives  it 
its  essential  character.  The  members  of  a  household  ought 
to  have  for  their  lord  the  affection  which  is  shown  to  the  head 
of  a  family,  and  he  on  his  side  has  the  duty  of  loving,  protecting, 
and  guiding  them  in  all  gentleness.  In  Raoul  de  Cambrai 
the  Count  of  Artois  sees  his  men  lying  44  in  the  sand.”  The 
enemy  have  killed  them  with  their  heavy  spears.  44  His  house¬ 
hold  is  there,  dead,  bleeding  :  with  his  right  hand  he  blesses 
them  ;  he  mourns  and  weeps  over  them  ;  his  tears  run  down 
to  his  waist.” 

The  family,  grown  and  organized  into"  the  44  mesnie,”  has 
its  artisans  and  its  labourers  who  act  at  the  same  time  as 
soldiers  under  the  leadership  of  their  head  ;  it  possesses  a 
moral  organization,  again  under  the  direction  of  the  head  of 
the  family.  The  members  of  this  extended  family  are  united 
as  a  sort  of  corporation  ;  they  assist  each  other  mutually  ; 
they  have  their  tribunal,  the  tribunal  of  the  lord,  i.e.  of  the 
head  of  the  family  ;  they  have  their  customs,  their  manners, 
their  traditions  ;  they  have  their  flag — that  is  to  say,  their 
watchword  ;  they  have  their  banner,  44  the  iron  haft  of  which  is 
gilded  over  ”  ;  they  take  one  name,  the  name  of  their  lord,  of  the 
head  of  the  family  ;  they  form  44  such  and  such  a  household.” 

The  family,  lasting  through  the  generations,  is  destined 
to  assert  its  traditions,  the  qualities  of  which  it  will  be  proud, 
heroism  and  honour.  Several  generations  have  gone  by  since 
that  brutal  epoch  when  the  family  was  the  necessary  refuge  for 
the  individual,  and  yet  all  would  still  work,  fight,  and  die  for  it. 

It  is  the  living  cell  from  which  France  sprang. 

Sources. — Aimoin,  Miracula  S.  Benedicti ,  ed.  Mabillon  ;  Acta  Sanctorum 
ord.  S.  Ben.,  iv.  356-90  ;  La  Chançun  de  Guillelme ,  ed.  Herm.  Sucliier, 
Biblioth.  normannica ,  1911  ;  Robert  de  Blois ,  Sammtîiche  Werke ,  Berlin, 
1889-95,  3  vols.  ;  L’histoire  de  Guillaume  le  Maréchal ,  ed.  P.  Meyer,  1891- 
1901,  3  vols.  ;  Montaiglon-Raynaud,  Recueil  des  fabliaux,  1872-90,  6  vols. 

9 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Historical  Works. — Jacq.  Flach,  Les  Origines  de  Vane.  France , 
1886-1917,  4  vols.  ;  Karl  Bucher,  die  Enstehung  der  Volkswertschaft,  2nd 
ed.,  1898  ;  Viollet-le-Duc,  Dictionnaire  de  V Architecture,  1854-68,  10  vols. 
8vo,  and  Dictionnaire  du  Mobilier,  1868-75,  6  vols. 


Messieurs  Alfred  and  Maurice  Croiset  have  given  us  the 
following  picture  of  ancient  Greece  at  the  beginning  of  its 

The  Fieî  feudal  period  :  “  The  populations  sought  their 

existence  in  the  hard  and  obstinate  labour  of  the 
soil  ;  there  was  no  active  industry  nor  any  great  trade  ;  it  was 
a  rough,  poor  life,  servile  and  unquiet  ;  a  life  in  which  war  was 
frequent,  and  consequently  there  were  incursions  and  pillag- 
ings  ;  every  one  bore  arms.  Instead  of  open  towns  there  were 
fortified  enclosures  built  of  great  stones  and  situated  on  the  hills  ; 
and  there  were  war-leaders  who  defended  the  men  of  the  fields 
and  gave  them  shelter  behind  their  ramparts  in  times  of  danger.” 

And  such  also  is  the  picture  which  France  offers  us  at  the 
end  of  the  tenth  century  :  “  That  was  the  time,”  writes 

Benjamin  Guérard,  “  when  each  one  to  secure  his  own  safety 
fortified  and  entrenched  himself  as  best  he  could.  The  steeps 
were  inhabited  ;  the  heights  were  crowned  with  towers  and 
forts  ;  the  walls  of  the  dwellings  were  furnished  with  turrets, 
bristling  with  battlements  and  pierced  with  loopholes.  Ditches 
were  dug  and  drawbridges  poised  ;  the  river- ways  and  defiles 
were  watched  and  defended  ;  roads  were  barred  and  com¬ 
munications  intercepted.  At  the  end  of  the  tenth  century 
each  person  had  his  definite  position  ;  France  was  covered 
with  fortified  places  and  feudal  haunts  ;  everywhere  society 
watched  and  held  itself  in  ambush.” 

In  these  “  haunts  ”  lived  men,  rude  and  valiant,  who 
engaged  in  war  and  the  work  of  the  fields.  “  William  of  Pon- 
thieu,  sprung  from  the  blood  royal  of  France,  had  four  sons. 
The  eldest  loved  only  arms  ;  the  second  eared  only  for  the 
chase  ;  the  third  gave  himself  to  rustic  labours,  content  to 
store  wheat  in  the  barns,  and  his  father  gave  to  him  in  fief  the 
earldom  of  Saint-Paul  ;  as  to  the  youngest,  he  devoted  himself 
to  the  breeding  of  cattle  :  his  father  allotted  to  him  a  terri¬ 
tory  of  uneven  ground,  bristling  with  thickets,  little  woods, 
and  quick-set  hedges,  possessing  pastures  and  marsh-lands  ” 
(Lambert  d’Ardres). 

10 


FORMATION  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 


Hariulf  describes  the  country  thus  arranged,  and  it  is 
simply  Ponthieu  :  “  The  country  is  watered  by  rivers  and 

springs  of  fresh  water  ;  it  is  wooded,  offers  pasturage  for  sheep, 
and  produces  corn.  The  men  there  are  warlike.  No  towns 
are  to  be  seen,  only  strong  castles.” 

Such  was  the  French  countryside  at  the  beginning  of  the 
feudal  period. 

The  family  has  become  the  household  ( mesnie ),  and  the 
household  develops  and  becomes  the  fief. 

For  a  “  stranger  ”  (  forain )  could  enter  into  the  household 
of  the  lord  by  adoption.  To  be  adopted  is,  according  to  the 
Epitome  of  Saint- G  all,  ad  alium  patrem  se  commendare,  to  put 
oneself  under  the  authority  of  another  father  ;  moreover, 
contemporaries  used  the  word  familia  to  indicate  the  whole 
number  of  persons  joined  under  the  authority  of  a  feudal  chief. 

The  baron — which  word  means  44  master  ” — at  the  head  of 
a  fief  is  the  head  of  a  family.  By  this  is  understood  all  his  trusty 
followers,  his  subjects ,  and  it  is  well  to  ponder  this  expression. 
The  baron  calls  his  subjects  his  kindred  : 

With  you  I  will  go  and  my  great  kindred  : 

Full  twenty  thousand  in  number  shall  we  be. 

(Ogier  le  Danois  (the  Dane),  v.  4932.) 

It  is  a  family  whose  members  are  identified  one  with  another, 
like  those  of  the  same  family  when  there  is  question  of  joy  or 
sorrow.  “  Yours  will  be  the  fault,”  a  vassal  will  say  to  his 
lord,  “  to  me  will  fall  the  loss  ;  and  you  will  have  part  in  it,  for 
the  penalty  goes  to  him  who  holds  the  lordship  ;  moreover,  it 
is  for  you  to  compensate  me.”  The  lord  owes  to  his  vassals 
protection,  help,  the  means  of  support.  44  In  his  land  of  Guines,” 
says  Lambert  d’Ardres,  44  Count  Arnoul  gathered  his  subjects 
round  him  and  worked  for  their  good  ;  he  received  them  into 
his  house,  into  his  family  ;  he  took  an  interest  in  them  and 
married  them  on  his  land.”  When  the  vassal  dies  the  lord 
takes  charge  of  his  widow  ;  if  she  is  young,  he  busies  himself 
about  marrying  her  again  ;  he  takes  care  of  her  children. 
For  the  annalist  who  wrote  the  Chronicle  of  the  Counts  of  Anjou , 
Geoffrey  of  the  Grey  Tunic  is  the  model  baron  (tenth  and 

11 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


eleventh  centuries)  :  44  He  was  skilled  in  war,  where  his  arm 
witnessed  to  his  valour  ;  lofty  and  calm,  he  gave  rein  to  his 
benevolence  ;  he  loved  giving  ;  a  true  enemy  to  his  enemies,  he 
was  a  true  patron  ( patrocinabatur )  to  his  own  people  :  such  is 
the  real  baronial  character.” 

Thus  the  lord  is  the  44  patron  ”  of  his  subject  ;  this  word  also 
is  of  the  period.  A  man  standing  alone  is  lost  in  the  storm  : 

Men  without  a  lord  have  fallen  badly. 

( Chanson  de  Guillaume ,  v.  289.) 

On  the  other  hand,  the  vassal  is  bound  to  his  suzerain  by 
the  sentiments  and  duties  of  a  son  to  a  father  ;  he  ought  to 
serve  him  with  love,  follow  him  in  war,  take  his  advice  in 
important  matters,  obtain  his  consent  when  he  gets  married  or 
marries  his  children  ;  he  owes  him  affection,  help,  fidelity  ; 
and  these  sentiments — begotten  by  the  fictitious  relationship 
created  by  the  feudal  tie,  but  inspired  by  the  ties  and  sentiments 
of  the  real  family — are  so  strong,  that  they  take  precedence 
over  the  obligations  of  kinship  itself. 

The  old  Duke  Aymon  encounters  in  Ardennes  his  four 
sons  who  are  at  war  with  his  suzerain.  What  is  the  vassal  to 
do  ?  betray  his  44  baron  ”  by  showing  favour  to  the  rebellion 
of  his  children,  or  wring  his  paternal  heart  in  taking  arms 
against  them  ? 

44  Alas  !”  he  cries,  44  why  have  my  sons  not  fled  away  ;  why 
do  they  oblige  me  to  give  them  battle  ?  ” 

And  if  my  sons  die,  my  heart  shall  be  sad  ! 

Count  Hermenfroi  encourages  him  in  his  resolution  : 

No  man  of  your  age,  whose  hairs  are  white 
Should  perjure  himself,  for  son  or  for  friend  ; 

Who  to  his  lord  a  traitor  is,  his  God  denies. 

“  By  my  head,”  cried  the  Duke,  “  I  intend  you  well, 

Never  truce  shall  they  have,  defeat  is  theirs.” 

(Les  Quatre  fils  Aymon ,  v.  2977.) 

And  the  old  man,  with  torture  in  his  heart,  sends  heralds 
to  his  children  to  announce  himself  their  enemy. 

Thus  the  fief  is  the  44  house  ”  grown  larger,  and  some 
thousands  of  fiefs  are  formed  through  the  broad  land.  In 
each  of  them  the  baron  brings  together  his  own  family,  his 
12 


FORMATION  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 


near  relatives,  the  children  of  the  younger  branches  of  his 
family,  then  those  who  have  come  to  place  themselves  and 
their  goods  under  his  protection.  The  alods  {aliens),  that  is 
to  say,  the  freeholds,  disappear.  They  are  lordless,  and  un¬ 
resisting  they  die  out. 

And  as  this  work  of  co-ordination  and  subordination  is  done 
without  ordered  direction  or  uniform  impulse,  society  is  in 
apparent  confusion,  but  with  the  life  and  healthy  verdure, 
the  fine  disorder  of  the  forest. 

The  fief  includes  those  who  have  attached  themselves  to  the 
lord  by  subordinating  their  lands  to  him,  and  it  includes  those 
whom  the  lord  has  attached  to  himself  by  a  grant  of  land,  or 
again  by  a  gift  of  money,  by  an  office  at  his  court,  or  by  some 
other  benefit,  some  “  honour  ”  which  the  beneficiary  receives 
from  him  in  faith  and  homage.  The  new  vassal,  in  exchange  for 
the  concession  granted  by  the  lord,  tenders  to  him  an  oath 
of  fidelity,  placing  his  hands  in  his,  after  which  the  baron  gives 
him  a  handful  of  soil,  a  branch  of  a  tree,  a  ball  of  turf,  as  a 
symbol  of  the  fief  granted,  field,  wood,  or  meadow,  and  from 
this  moment  the  vassal,  seized  of  the  benefit  which  the  suzerain 
has  given  him,  becomes  his  man  and  owes  him  his  devotion 
as  the  lord  owes  him  his  protection. 

Such  are  the  sentiments  which  are  to  make  all  the  in¬ 
habitants  of  a  fief,  united  under  the  authority  of  their  suzerain, 
members  of  a  little  country.  Moreover,  we  find  the  word 
palria  used  in  documents  to  describe  the  whole  of  a  fief,  in¬ 
habitants  and  land,  just  as  it  is  also  found  describing  the  family 
and  the  household  (mesnie). 

Within  the  fief,  subject  to  the  lord  and  his  vassals,  live 
the  serfs,  the  rural  labourers  attached  to  the  soil,  which  they 

The  Serfs  cultivate  painfully.  The  serf  is  the  manual 

worker  tied  to  the  soil  which  he  cannot  leave.  He 
is  not  a  soldier,  and  except  at  the  call  of  his  lord  he  has  no  right 
to  carry  arms. 

One  sees  serfs  who  have  other  serfs  working  under  their 
orders.  For  in  servitude  there  are  still  degrees.  The  serfs 
cannot  marry  without  the  consent  of  their  lord.  For  that 
matter,  it  was  the  same  with  the  vassals  and  with  the  lord  him¬ 
self,  who  could  not  marry  without  the  consent  of  the  King  : 

IS 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

a  consequence  of  the  family  organization  which  formed  the 
whole  State. 

Serfdom  replaced  slavery  proper  at  the  time  of  the  dis¬ 
solution  of  the  Carolingian  Empire.  Its  origin  is  found  in 
what  historians  have  called  the  “  appropriation  of  the  soil,” 
which  persons  of  servile  condition  practised  to  their  profit  ;  as 
in  fact  it  was  practised  by  persons  immediately  higher  in  the 
social  scale.  It  has  not  been  sufficiently  noticed  that  serfdom 
constituted  the  lower  stage  of  vassalship.  It  might  be  compared 
to  a  forced  rent. 

The  condition  of  the  serfs,  then  beginning  to  improve,  was 
still  very  hard  at  the  end  of  the  tenth  century.  In  998  a 
certain  Stephen  made  a  donation  to  the  Abbey  of  Cluny  in 
expiation  of  his  violence  in  having  had  the  foot  of  one  of  his 
serfs  cut  off.  About  the  same  time  the  Church  declared  the 
penalty  of  excommunication  against  any  person  who  should 
have  put  a  serf  to  death.  But  let  us  not  forget  that  if  serfdom 
tied  the  hard  knot  by  which  a  man  was  bound  to  the  soil,  at 
the  same  time  it  offered  great  advantages  in  those  rude 
times  to  him  who  was  subject  to  it  ;  that  if  the  soil  held  the 
serf,  the  serf  held  the  soil  ;  that  if  the  serf  was  condemned  to 
toil  on  the  land,  at  least  his  livelihood  was  there  assured,  and 
that  was  for  him,  in  those  times  of  violent  anarchy,  a  blessing. 
Serfdom  was  not  slavery.  Its  obligations  were  fixed.  The 
lord  could  not  give  orders  at  his  pleasure.  In  a  document  of 
the  eleventh  century  we  see  some  serfs  refusing  to  cart  clay 
because  they  had  never  done  it  before. 

The  serf  worked,  certainly,  for  his  lord  ;  but  the  lord  granted 
to  him,  as  to  all  his  “  subjects,”  assistance  and  protection.  The 
watchman,  who  acts  sentinel  at  the  top  of  the  wooden  tower, 
has  uttered  a  cry  of  fear  ;  on  the  horizon  savage  bands  or 
enemy  foragers  are  ravaging  the  land.  The  castle  opens  its 
doors  to  the  poor  labourer  with  his  family,  his  beasts,  his  goods. 

In  years  of  famine  the  serf  finds  help  with  his  lord,  while 
the  free  man  of  lowly  condition  dies  of  hunger.  Between  the 
lord  and  the  serf  are  repeated,  in  fact,  those  same  sentiments 
of  unity,  devotion,  of  reciprocal  affection  which  we  have  noted 
between  baron  and  vassals. 

There  is  the  beautiful  story  of  Amis,  in  Amis  et  Amiles.  A 


14 


FORMATION  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 


hideous  leprosy  devours  the  young  knight.  His  wife  spurns 
him  ;  at  the  hospital  no  one  dares  to  approach  him,  but  two 
of  his  serfs  follow  him  in  his  life  of  wandering  ;  they  tend 
him  as  a  mother  does  her  child  ;  they  go  so  far  as  to  beg  for 
him. 

And  there  are  other  stories  more  touching  still,  which 
remind  one  of  that  of  the  good  vassal  Renier,  in  Jourdain  de 
Blaye. 

A  traitor,  Fromont,  assassinates  his  ]ord,  Girard  de  Blaye, 
and  tries  to  exterminate  even  to  the  last  member  this  family, 
whose  chief  he  has  slain.  There  remains  a  child,  the  only  son, 
whom  Girard  has  confided  to  the  care  of  one  of  his  men,  a 
certain  Renier,  and  his  wife,  Erembourc.  Fromont  hears  of 
it  and  calls  on  these  brave  folk  to  bring  to  him  the  son  of  Girard, 
whom  he  would  also  kill.  Renier  and  his  wife  deliver  up  their 
own  child,  making  him  pass  for  that  of  their  lord.  The  poet 
paints  the  grief  of  the  mother  in  making  this  bitter  sacrifice  : 
“  The  mother  sets  out  to  give  up  her  son  to  those  who  are 
going  to  slaughter  him.  The  child  smiles,  for  he  knows  no  evil. 
The  beautiful  days  of  summer  are  coming,  thought  the  mother, 
and  I  shall  climb  up  there  to  the  walls.  Thence  I  shall  see  the 
children,  the  boys  of  his  age  ;  I  shall  see  them  playing  with 
shields,  and  bars,  and  tilts,  struggling  together  and  tumbling 
over  ;  and  my  heart  will  weep  at  it.” 

The  documents  of  the  twelfth  century  show,  more  than 
once,  the  peasants  rising  bodily  in  a  spontaneous  movement,  to 
deliver  their  lord  when  they  have  heard  of  his  captivity. 

It  can  be  said  of  the  French  serfs  of  the  Middle  Ages  what 
the  Comte  de  Ségur  wrote  of  the  Russian  serfs  in  the  eighteenth 
century  :  “  Certain  of  always  being  fed,  lodged,  warmed  by  the 
fruits  of  their  labour  or  by  their  lords,  sheltered  from  every 
need,  they  never  felt  the  anguish  of  poverty  or  the  fear  of  falling 
into  it.”  Add  to  that,  security,  so  precious  in  those  barbarous 
centuries,  for  the  tiller  of  the  fields. 

The  serf,  it  is  true,  of  himself  possesses  nothing  ;  what  he 
has  returns  to  his  lord  after  his  death  ;  but  this  harsh  rule  has 
its  corrective  in  the  organization  of  “  village  houses  ”  of  which 
the  serfs  form  a  part,  “  mesnies  ”  like  those  of  which  we  have 
treated.  The  goods  therein  are  handed  down  from  generation 

15 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


to  generation,  arousing  the  interest  of  the  workers  in  a  common 
prosperity.  It  is  a  collective  personality  which  draws  together 
the  members  of  the  family,  and  is  preserved  in  its  successive 
generations.  The  serf  finds  in  it  a  stimulus  to  work  and  thrift. 
He  can  sell,  buy,  realize  privileges.  And  there  can  be  seen 
among  the  serfs  wealthy  men,  influential  men,  “  rich  men,” 
as  the  expression  then  went. 

The  keep  procures  security  for  the  members  of  the  great 
family  ;  it  gives  them  independence.  From  its  imposing 

height  the  massive  tower  protects  its  own. 
e  eeps.  “  Huon  de  Cambrai,  Gautier  and  Rigaut, 

having  no  hope  of  taking  the  strong  town  of  Lens,  contented 
themselves  with  laying  waste  the  surrounding  country.  .  .  . 
This  was  the  limit  of  their  progress,  for  the  lands  of  Enguerran 
were  too  well  defended  (by  the  keep  which  Enguerran  de  Coucy 
had  built  and  which  the  Boches  have  just  criminally  destroyed) 
for  them  to  think  of  venturing  there.” 

From  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century  the  wooden 
44  mottes  ”  become  more  important  ;  their  walls  rise  higher, 
their  moats  grow  deeper. 

The  famous  Château  du  Puiset,  described  by  Suger,  was 
built  in  the  twelfth  century.  It  shows  the  transition  between 
the  44  motte  ”  of  the  tenth  century,  built  of  earth  and  wood,  and 
the  feudal  castle,  all  of  stone,  of  the  twelfth  cenutry. 

The  Château  du  Puiset  had  a  double  circumvallation  like 
the  44  mottes  ”  we  have  already  described  in  outline.  A  first 
enclosure  is  formed  by  a  moat  and  a  palisade  ;  but  the  second, 
the  interior  boundary,  is  already  formed  by  a  stone  wall.  In 
the  centre  is  the  castle  mound  on  ground  raised  artificially,  with 
its  tower  still  of  wood. 

The  castle  of  the  feudal  lord  is  composed,  then,  essentially 
of  the  keep,  i.e.  a  high  tower — square  in  the  eleventh  and 
twelfth  centuries,  round  in  the  following  centuries — surrounded 
by  a  vast  enclosure,  palisade  or  rampart,  bordered  by  a  moat. 
The  keep  was  generally  erected  on  the  highest  point  of  the 
seigniorial  territory,  sometimes,  however,  at  a  point  considered 
weak  from  the  point  of  view  of  defence,  in  order  to  strengthen 
it.  In  the  eleventh  century  the  keep  still  serves  as  a  residence 
for  the  baron  and  his  immediate  relatives  ;  in  the  twelfth 
16 


FORMATION  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 


century  it  is  to  be  reserved  for  purely  military  purposes  ;  then, 
quite  close,  within  the  same  enclosure,  the  “  palace  ”  will  be 
built  as  a  residence  for  the  seigniorial  family. 

We  have  just  seen  that  the  keep  is  generally  built  on  an 
eminence.  A  vast  enclosure  follows  the  declivity  of  the  hill. 
It  is  therefore  on  the  lowest  level  and  is  called  the  “  inner 
court.”  There  a  well  will  be  sunk  and  there  too  a  chapel  and 
dwelling-houses  will  be  arranged  for  the  companions  and  servants 
of  the  baron.  A  second  court,  adjoining  the  first — for  very 
soon  it  will  be  no  longer  a  concentric  court — is  also  surrounded 
by  a  line  of  enclosure  :  it  contains  other  dwellings  in  which 
the  artisans  attached  to  the  castle  live,  and  some  shelters  for  the 
“refugees  ”  ( retrahants )  of  the  domain,  for  their  cattle  and  goods, 
i.e.  for  the  inhabitants  of  the  fief  who,  in  case  of  danger,  come  to 
find  refuge  with  their  possessions  in  the  shelter  of  the  fortress 
(férié). 

From  Senlis  to  Orleans  one  may  go, 

Thence  back  to  Paris  wend, 

From  Laon  to  Reims  through  all  the  cities, 

No  man  of  woman  born  shall  there  be  found 
Who  is  not  in  tower  or  castle  shut. 

(Les  Quatre  fils  Aymon ,  v.  3221.) 

Up  to  the  twelfth  century,  only  the  keep  and  the  interior 
wall  will  be  of  stone — and  the  keep  will  not  always  be  so,  as  wre 
have  just  seen  from  the  Château  du  Puiset  ;  the  other  construc¬ 
tions  are  still  of  wood,  separate  from  one  another,  which  gives 
the  whole  the  appearance  of  an  encampment  rather  than  of  a 
fixed  dwelling-place.  The  exterior  wall,  surrounded  by  a  moat, 
is  generally  composed  of  palisades  ;  it  may  happen  to  be  formed 
of  piled-up  stones. 

Sometimes,  beyond  the  outer  wall — but  more  often  within 
the  enclosure  and  protected  by  its  fence — were  a  vineyard, 
orchard,  the  castle  garden,  a  pleasure  garden,  or  even  a  little 
wood  ;  the  lord,  his  lady,  and  their  guests  find  there  green 
shades,  with  the  song  of  birds.  Finally,  outside  the  walls  stretch 
the  arable  lands,  “  gaignables ,”  fields,  vineyards,  woods,  wdllow 
grpves  and  osier  beds,  fish  ponds  where  sport  the  red-brown 
carp,  the  elusive  tench  ;  the  private  domain  of  the  seigneur. 

There  is  the  very  soul  of  the  little  country  which  the  feudal 
spirit  has  formed  round  the  “  baron.” 

B 


17 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


One  sees  such  castles  defended  by  a  single  man-at-arms 
who  is  sufficient  for  the  task,  for  he  has  under  his  orders  the 
“  refugees  ”  of  the  surrounding  district,  the  inhabitants  of  his 
“  country,”  his  faithful  subjects,  vassals,  and  serfs,  who  take 
refuge  with  their  families,  cattle,  and  goods  within  the  walls 
of  the  castle  which  the  lord  has  built  with  their  help. 

For  fifty  leagues  wandering  you  might  go, 

Nor  would  a  man  be  found,  townsman  or  peasant, 

Save  those  who  in  the  castles  are  set  to  watch. 

(Les  Quatre  fils  Aymon,  v.  3185.) 

The  peasant  feels  himself  sheltered  ;  he  is  certain  of  pro¬ 
tection  ;  he  can  work  without  fear  of  seeing  a  band  of  robbers 
suddenly  appear  who  will  rend  from  him  cattle  and  goods,  and 
lead  him  off  captive,  him  and  his,  driving  him  with  kicks,  a 
pitchfork  at  his  neck.  Thanks  to  this  splendid  person  the 
feudal  baron,  the  villein  works,  sows,  looks  forward  to  his 
harvest.  “  At  that  time,”  says  the  author  of  the  Chronique 
d’Espagne ,  “  the  barons,  so  as  to  be  always  ready,  kept  their 
horses  in  the  rooms  where  they  slept  with  their  wives.” 

Insensibly,  between  the  military  chief,  iron- clad  in  his  stone 
keep,  and  his  labourers  of  the  open  country,  necessity  strengthens 
the  mutual  contract  by  making  it  customary.  The  “  subjects  ” 
work  for  the  baron,  cultivate  his  land,  carry  for  him,  pay  certain 
dues,  so  much  per  house,  so  much  per  head  of  cattle,  so  much 
on  inheritance  or  sale,  for  he  must  keep  himself  and  his  family 
and  feed  his  soldiers.  Le  Play  has  compared  the  feudal  castle 
thus  organized  to  a  military  workshop  whose  work  consists  in 
the  protection  of  agriculture,  industry,  and  commerce,  which 
can  only  be  done  through  it. 

The  baron  is  happy  in  the  prosperity  of  his  faithful  sub¬ 
jects,  and  they  share  in  the  joys  of  their  lord.  Aubri  marries 
Guibourc.  On  the  day  of  the  wedding  his  castle  is  filled  with 
his  numerous  “  kindred.” 

But  when  he  sees  his  great  palace  filled, 

The  benches  with  cavaliers  full, 

And  they  play  on  the  viol  high  and  clear  and  joyously  ; 

When  his  people  abound  in  merriment  and  joy, 

It  seems  to  him  that  he  is  full  of  well-being. 


18 


( Auberi .) 


FORMATION  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 


Garin  and  his  son  Girbert  arrive  in  their  fief  of  Gorze  lès 
Saint  Mihiel  :  “  Great  and  small  had  come  to  meet  them.  It 
was  good  to  see  the  crowd  of  young  men  and  maidens  laughing 
and  dancing  to  the  sound  of  the  pipes  and  viols  ”  (Garin  le 
Loherain). 

And  thus  one  can  follow  the  successive  transformations  by 
which  family  affections  developed  into  usages  and  customs,  and 
by  which  through  their  transportation  into  the  social  organism 
the  feudal  system  was  formed. 

Sink  a  well  in  the  desert  from  which  beneficent  water  shall 
flow,  and  you  will  see  all  round  the  land  grow  green  and  become 
covered  with  palms,  aloes,  and  cactus,  the  formation  of  an 
oasis.  So,  in  the  eleventh  century,  the  man  enterprising 
enough  to  raise  a  “  motte  ”  in  a  ravaged  district,  sufficiently 
powerful  to  build  there  a  keep  with  its  fortified  enclosure  and 
to  provide  it  with  soldiers,  had  not  long  to  wait  before  he  saw 
an  active  population  growing  in  the  neighbouring  countryside, 
work  developing,  a  group  of  villages  growing  up,  and  monasteries 
being  built.  On  the  other  hand,  the  districts  where  no  powerful 
lords  held  sway  and  extended  their  protection,  soon  fell  into 
frightful  anarchy. 

Most  of  the  fiefs  were  formed  thus  in  France  at  the  outset 

of  the  feudal  period,  spontaneously,  through  the  grouping 

of  the  inhabitants  of  a  district  huddling  in  the 

The  Feudal  midst  of  the  storm  under  the  protection  of  a 
Hierarchy  1 

man  powerful  through  his  courage,  his  family, 

his  property  which  he  was  well  able  to  defend,  or  through 

alliances  which  he  knew  how  to  use. 

The  hierarchy  of  protection  and  mutual  devotion  established 
between  the  lord  and  his  men  is  to  be  continued  between  the 
lord  who  rules  a  fief  of  some  importance  and  a  more  powerful 
baron,  who  will  group  under  his  authority,  through  similar 
ties,  not  only  his  vassals  and  immediate  serfs,  but  other 
seigneurs  who,  while  preserving  their  authority  intact  over  their 
“  subjects,”  will  themselves  become  the  “  men  ”  of  this 
superior  suzerain.  And  this  superior  baron  will  attach  him¬ 
self  in  his  turn  by  identical  bonds  to  a  lord  more  important 
still.  It  is  a  superposition  of  fiefs, — which  reminds  one  of 
the  system  of  turrets,  spires,  niches,  and  arches  of  the  mediaeval 

19 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


churches, — of  which  each,  whatever  its  degree  of  importance, 
its  power,  its  population,  is  like  the  others  in  its  composition 
even  up  to  the  supreme  fief,  the  keystone  of  the  whole  edifice, 
which  is  commanded  by  the  suzerain  of  all  the  French  suzerains 
— even  to  the  King  in  his  keep  of  the  Louvre,  which  Philip 
Augustus  is  to  build  and  on  which  all  the  keeps  of  France  depend. 


Sources. — Capitulaires  Carolingiens ,  ed.  Pertz,  LL,  tome  i.  ;  Chron. 
de  St.  Riquier,  by  Hariulf,  ed.  Lot,  1894  ;  Chroniques  des  Comtes  d’Anjou 
et  des  sgrs  d’Amboise ,  ed.  Halphen  and  Poupardin,  1913  ;  Suger,  Vita 
Ludovici  regis, e  d.  Molinier,  1887  ;  Lamberti  Ardrensis  eccl.  presb.  chron. 
Ghinense  et  Ardense ,  ed.  Godefroy-Menilglaise,  1855  ;  Le  Chanson  de  Roland , 
various  editions  ;  La  Chançun  de  Guillelme ,  ed.  Suchier,  Biblioth.  norman - 
nica ,  1911  ;  Garin  le  Loherain ,  translated  by  P.  Paris,  1862  ;  Ogier  le 
Danois ,  ed.  Barrois,  1842  ;  Raoul  de  Cambrai,  ed.  Meyer  and  Lognon, 
1882  ;  La  Chançun  des  Quatre  fils  Aymon,  ed.  Castets,  Montpellier,  1909  ; 
Li  coronomens  Looys,  ed.  Jonckbloet,  Guillaume  d’ Or  ange,  The  Hague, 
1854,  2  vols.  ;  Vict.  Mortet,  Textes  relatifs  à  l’histoire  de  V architecture 
(XIé-XIIé  Siècles),  1911. 

Historical  Works. — Alfred  and  Maur.  Croiset,  Hist,  de  la  lût.  grecque, 
2nd  ed.,  1896  ;  Brussel,  Nouvel  examen  de  l’usage  des  fiefs,  1750,  2  vols.  ; 
Benj.  Guérard,  Prolégom.  au  Polypt.  de  l’abbé  Irminon,  1845  ;  Fustel  de 
Coulanges,  Les  Origines  du  système  féodal,  1890  ;  Jacq.  Flach,  Les  origines 
de  lane.  France,  1886-1917,  4  vols.  ;  Doniol,  Serfs  et  Vilains  au  Moyen 
Age,  1900  ;  Seignobos,  Le  Régime  féodal  en  Bourgogne,  1882  ;  C.  Lamprecht, 
Etudes  sur  l’état  econ.  de  la  France  pendant  la  lre  partie  du  Moyen  Age, 
translation  Marignan,  1889  ;  Guilhiermoz,  Essai  sur  l’Origine  de  la  Noblesse 
en  France,  1902. 


The  fortress,  composed  essentially  of  an  enclosure  round 
a  keep,  contains  an  autonomous  society,  which  has  its 

government,  its  judicial  system,  its  customs,  its 

rjiUp  Tnwti  •  °  t  ^ 

The  Castles  soldiers,  its  artisans,  who  have  their  dwellings 

and  workshops.  Under  the  shelter  of  the  walls 
the  workmen  work  for  their  lord,  their  “  patron,”  and  for  his 
numerous  “kindred,”  i.e.  for  the  inhabitants  of  the  fief  : 
the  peasants  of  the  surrounding  district  come  to  seek  refuge 
there  in  times  of  danger. 

William  le  Breton  describes  the  Château-Gaillard,  built  by 
Richard  Cœur  de  Lion  in  a  loop  of  the  Seine,  whence  it  dominates 
the  Andelys  :  “  He  had  the  crest  of  the  rock  rounded  and  girt 
it  about  with  strong  walls,  he  freed  it  from  the  stones  which 
encumbered  it,  and  after  having  levelled  the  interior  of  this 
20 


FORMATION  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 


enclosure,  he  caused  to  be  built  there  many  little  dwellings 
and  houses  capable  of  holding  many  people,  keeping  the  centre 
only  for  the  erection  of  the  keep.  The  beauty  of  the  place 
and  the  strength  of  the  fortress  spread  the  fame  of  the  Gaillard 
rock.”  The  castle,  reputed  impregnable,  will  be  taken  by 
Philip  Augustus.  44  He  found  there  a  great  street,”  says 
le  Breton,  44  filled  with  many  dwellings.  .  .  .  The  King 
distributed  its  houses  to  new  citizens.” 

Thus  the  great  feudal  castles  sheltered  quite  a  numerous 
population,  a  sedentary  population  continually  increased  by 
44  refugees  ”  from  the  castle-ward. 

Around  certain  keeps  there  is  a  vast  enclosure  which  appears 
to  be  destined  to  serve  as  a  camping-ground  for  an  army. 
This  space  is  furnished  with  huts  hastily  put  up  when  dis¬ 
turbances  break  out.  They  gave  shelter  to  the  44  subjects  ” 
of  the  flat  countrv,  to  their  families  and  their  cattle — and  these 
disturbances  lasted  sometimes  for  months  or  years.  One  can 
imagine  with  what  activity  the  work  went  on  then  in  the  work¬ 
shops  within  the  walls. 

But  from  the  eleventh  century  on,  thanks  to  the  44  patronal  ” 
feudal  organization  we  have  just  described,  a  relative  degree 
of  order  is  established,  a  certain  amount  of  industry  is  de¬ 
veloped  ;  it  begins  to  be  possible  to  move  from  one  district 
to  another,  and  one  sees  a  commercial  movement  growing  up 
from  the  need  of  exchanges — which  were  first  made  from  one 
domain  to  its  neighbour.  Then,  too,  in  their  turn  merchants 
come  to  establish  themselves  within  the  precincts  of  the  castle  : 
the  castle,  the  burgh  (bourg) — from  the  German  burg ,  a  fort¬ 
ress  —  becomes  peopled  with  burgesses  ( bourgeois )  ;  a  popula¬ 
tion  which  before  long  spreads  beyond  the  castle  walls  and 
builds  up  the  faubourgs ,  whose  inhabitants  also  are  anxious 
to  surround  themselves  with  a  wall  of  defence. 

44  Girard  de  Roussillon  lived  at  Orivent,  a  castle  which  he 
held  from  the  King.  The  burgesses  thereof  are  rich,  possessing 
horses,  and  gold,  and  silver  ”  (Girart  de  Roussillon). 

What  is  a  town  in  the  Middle  Ages  ?  It  is  a  castle  which 
has  prospered.  It  is  an  important  fact,  and  one  which  has 
not  been  sufficiently  noted,  that  in  the  documents  of  the  first 
centuries  of  the  feudal  period  the  words  44  town  ”  (ville)  and 

21 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


44  castle  ”  ( château )  are  synonymous.  Witness  the  Fabliau 
de  Courtebarbe  : 

Into  the  town  (Compiègne)  they  went  ; 

They  listened  and  heard 
It  cried  through  the  castle , 

“  Here  is  good  wine,  fresh  and  new.” 

(. Fabliau  des  trois  aveugles .) 

In  the  twelfth  century  Suger  and  Galbert  de  Bruges  will 
still  call  towns  like  Ypres  and  Bruges  44  castles.”  For  William 
le  Breton  Dijon  is  a  castle,  and  so  is  Rouen  for  the  historian 
of  William  the  Marshall  ;  while  for  the  author  of  the  Grandes 
Chroniques  the  Château  du  Puiset  is  a  town. 

We  have  just  described  the  feudal  castle  surrounded  by  a 
fortified  enclosure,  where  the  companions  of  the  lord,  the 
artisans  who  work  for  his  household,  have  taken  up  their  abode 
as  well  as  some  of  his  labourers.  Now  it  happens,  as  a  result 
of  fortunate  circumstances,  and  notably  through  the  growth  of 
the  fief,  that  the  work  of  the  castellan,  of  the  burgesses,  and  of  the 
artisans  becomes  more  active;  the  population  increases.  Hariulf 
speaks  of  the  district  of  Saint  Riquier  (Centuel),  44  where  there 
are  no  towns  but  the  castles  are  rich  and  populous.”  Here  is 
a  geographical  position  favourable  to  exchanges,  at  the  crossing 
of  high  roads  or  on  a  waterway  ;  the  products  of  the  land  are 
good  for  trade,  and  a  town  develops  inside  the  fortress,  the 
burgh,  and  in  the  faubourgs,  whose  enclosure  it  soon  breaks 
through,  which  in  its  turn  has  become  too  narrow. 

Moreover,  in  the  eleventh  century  there  is  no  opposition 
between  the  castle  of  the  seigneur  and  the  town  of  the  burgesses. 
Town  and  castle  are  in  unity.  Look  at  Coucy.  The  high  keep, 
surrounded  by  thick  walls  and  girt  with  a  deep  moat,  stands  in 
the  wide  court  where  the  44  palace  ”  is  built.  This  latter  contains 
the  residence  of  the  lord  of  Coucy,  of  his  followers,  knights,  and 
squires,  his  liegemen.  The  whole  is  surrounded  by  vast  walls 
flanked  by  towers  ;  the  walls  continuing  surround  the  whole 
town,  the  houses  of  which  are  built  to  imitate  the  keep.  If 
the  town  is  about  to  be  taken  the  inhabitants  take  refuge  with 
their  provisions  in  the  keep,  which  can  offer  so  efficient  and 
powerful  a  resistance  that  throughout  the  Middle  Ages,  the 
Hundred  Years  War,  and  the  League  it  will  defy  every  attack. 
22 


FORMATION  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 


Like  the  castle,-  the  town  is  characterized  in  the  eleventh 
century  by  the  fact  that  it  is  surrounded  by  a  line  of  fortifica¬ 
tions,  generally  composed  up  to  the  beginning  of  the  next 
century  of  a  wooden  palisade  bordered  by  a  moat  like  that  of 
the  fortresses.  Like  those  of  the  castles  proper,  the  town 
enclosures  afforded  refuge  to  the  people  of  the  surrounding 
districts  in  case  of  invasion  by  an  enemy. 

And  if  we  will  remember  that  in  the  eleventh  century  all 
the  urban  governments  are  seigniorial  governments,  we  shall 
not  be  astonished  that  the  words  town  and  castle  were  synonym¬ 
ous  :  the  towns  were  castles. 

As  late  as  the  fifteenth  century  the  town  of  St.  Romain-le- 
Puy,  in  Forez,  will  present  a  striking  example  of  the  urban 
structure  :  an  isolated  mountain  furnished  with  a  triple  system 
of  fortifications  ;  at  the  top  rises  the  castle  with  its  keep, 
protecting  a  convent  of  Benedictine  monks  ;  half-way  down 
the  hill  is  the  circle  of  fortifications  in  stone  erected  for 
the  defence  of  the  burgh,  where  dwell  the  burgesses  ;  finally, 
at  the  bottom,  another  wall  concentric  with  this  surrounds 
the  courtyard  ( bassecour ),  the  refuge  of  the  country  people. 

The  circle  of  fortifications,  however,  is  not  sufficient  to 
constitute  a  town.  Many  villages  are  found  protected  by  a 
Th  Urb  n  ramPart  since  the  tenth  century,  but  they  have 
Lordship  remained  villages.  Another  condition  is  neces¬ 
sary  ;  we  have  just  indicated  it  :  the  feudal 
authority  of  a  suzerain  must  be  established. 

The  site  of  the  town  of  Ardres  was  in  the  tenth  century 
but  waste  land,  whence  its  name  :  Ardea.  A  brewer  came  to 
establish  himself  there,  and  his  little  establishment  prospered, 
for  the  shepherds  came  there  to  drink,  and  on  Sundays  they 
might  be  seen  in  front  of  his  door  amusing  themselves,  leaping 
the  bars  and  turning  somersaults.  A  village  grew  up.  Arnoul, 
son-in-law  of  Herred  de  Furnes,  resolved  to  transfer  his  resi¬ 
dence  there.  He  built  there,  says  Lambert  d’Ardres,  a  “  motte,” 
a  keep,  and  surrounded  it  with  a  moated  rampart.  The 
enclosure  soon  grew  larger,  a  market  was  set  up,  a  church  was 
built;  Arnoul  established  a  judicial  system,  a  seigniorial  authority 
was  established  :  Ardres  was  a  town. 

It  is  owing  to  the  lord’s  protection  that  the  town  flourishes, 

23 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


an  armed  defence  which  means  unceasing  work  for  the  baron. 
In  it  he  risks  his  life  and  those  of  his  men.  44  Huon  de  Cambrai 
hears  in  the  town  (St.  Quentin)  the  cries  of  the  burgesses,  the 
groans  of  the  women  and  girls  ill  prepared  for  such  chances 
(jeux)  (the  perils  of  war).  4  Do  not  grieve,’  he  cries  to  them, 
4  you  have  nothing  to  fear  while  I  am  alive  ;  before  they  should 
reach  you  much  blood  would  be  shed,  and  mine  to  the  last 
drop.’  ”  ( Garin  le  Loherain.) 

The  feudal  baron  secures  the  safety  of  his  burgesses,  he  secures 
the  safe  transit  of  their  merchandise  within  his  territory,  and  so 
efficacious  is  his  protection  that  it  follows  them  into  distant  lands. 

44  When  the  burgesses  and  merchants  of  Narbonne  hear  that 
their  lord,  the  Count  Aimeri,  wishes  to  separate  himself  from  his 
sons  and  send  them  into  foreign  parts,  they  are  deeply  grieved. 

44  The  news  spreads  that  the  six  brothers  are  about  to  set 
out.  The  burgesses  assemble  ;  two  hundred  of  them  ascend 
to  the  hall  of  the  castle  : 

4  4  4  Aimeri,  Sire,’  says  the  best  speaker,  4  we  are  merchants 
who  traverse  land  and  sea,  carrying  rich  stuffs,  ermine,  horses, 
and  wines.  When  we  arrive  at  distant  markets,  they  demand 
of  us  :  44  To  whom  do  you  owe  allegiance  ?  To  what  lord  do 
you  appeal  ?”  We  answer  :  44  The  Count  Aimeri  and  his  sons.” 
And  none  would  be  so  bold  as  to  offend  against  us.  Now, 
behold  you  wish  to  scatter  your  sons  abroad.  Sire,  take  rather 
our  vineyards,  our  lands,  our  farms  ;  take  what  you  will  of  our 
wealth,  and  distribute  it  among  your  children  ;  but  keep  them 
with  you  to  defend  us.’  ”  ( Les  Narbonnais.) 

The  lord  maintained  peace  within  his  territory  by  administer¬ 
ing  justice. 

To  encourage  the  trade  of  his  burgesses,  he  had  bridges 
built,  marshes  drained,  roads  repaired,  and  inns  established. 

And  had  good  bridges  made  and  great  hostelry. 

(Elie  de  Saint-Gilles.) 

And  in  the  Roman  de  Brut ,  concerning  the  Seigneur  de  Belin  : 

Good  bridges  he  had  made,  high  roads, 

Of  stone,  of  sand,  of  chalk, 

First  he  made  a  highway. 

The  lord  built  hospitals  and  lazar-houses, 

24 


FORMATION  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 


44  Oilard  de  Wynville,”  notes  Lambert  d’Ardres,  “  hears 
that,  between  Guines  and  Wissant,  a  lonely  spot,  covered  with 
woods,  was  infested  by  wicked  men.  Lying  in  wait  in  their 
dens  they  pounced  upon  the  passers-by.”  Through  this  the 
place  was  known  as  Soutinguevelt ,  i.e.  44  the  field  of  the  wicked.” 
Oilard  de  Wynville  freed  Soutinguevelt  of  the  bandits  who 
infested  it,  and  secured  safe  passage  there.  Such  was  the 
origin,  says  Lambert  d’Ardres,  of  the  toll  established  in  the 
environs  of  Guines. 

Thus  the  taxes  and  dues,  the  customs  and  tolls,  the  wine¬ 
presses  and  manorial  bakehouses,  whose  profits  went  to  the 
lord,  represented  the  legitimate  reward  for  his  trouble,  his 
expenses,  and  his  work.  The  baron  set  up  a  market  for  barter, 
establishing  it  under  the  walls  of  his  castle,  an  arrangement  which 
was  to  remain  when  the  towns  developed.  He  kept  order  there, 
and  policed  it  and  guaranteed  the  safety  of  the  merchants  : 

A  lord  who  held  much  land, 

Who  so  much  hated  deadly  war, 

And  all  men  of  evil  life 
That  well  he  punished  them, 

And  when  he  had  imprisoned  them 
No  ransom  would  he  take, — 

Proclaimed  a  new  market. 

A  poor  merchant  comfortless 
Went  to  it  with  his  little  horse, 

He  had  neither  wallet  nor  servant, 

Trifling  was  his  merchandise. 

The  honest  man  ties  up  his  44  little  horse  ”  in  a  field  of  the 
seigniorial  fief.  The  beast  will  browse  there,  for  he  has  no  oats 
to  give  it.  And  the  mercer  leaves  his  mount  in  the  keeping  of 
the  seigneur  and,  moreover,  in  God’s  hands.  Now  during  the 
night  the  44  little  horse  ”  was  devoured  by  a  wolf.  The  mercer 
goes  to  the  baron’s  court.  44  I  had  placed  my  beast  under  your 
protection  and  that  of  God.” — 44  How  much  was  the  animal 
worth  ?  ” — 44  Sixty  sous.” — 44  Well,  here  are  thirty  ;  ask  God 
for  the  rest  ”  ( Fabliau  du  pauvre  mercier). 

In  1172  Guinard,  Count  of  Roussillon,  leaves  to  Peter 
Martin,  a  merchant  of  Perpignan,  one  hundred  and  fifty  Melgueil 
sous  for  the  loss  a  robber  has  caused  him  on  his  lands. 

Like  the  vassals  in  the  country,  the  burgesses  love  their 

25 


THE  MIDDLE  ACxES 


lord,  without  whom  they  could  not  live.  Count  Richard  de 
Montivilliers  is  going  to  set  out  on  Crusade,  and  his  burgesses, 
whom  he  has  so  well  guarded,  says  Jean  Renard,  that  they 
are  now  all  rich  men,  are  terribly  grieved. 


Alas  !  they  cry  fearful  and  sorrowing, 

What  henceforth  can  we  do  ? 

Alas  !  gentle  count  so  debonair, 

How  distraught  are  we  to-day  ! 

(V Escoufle,  v.  188.) 

And  what  joy  at  his  return  ! 

“  Droon,  son  of  Girard,  entered  the  castle  (Roussillon)  on 
horseback.  He  found  a  thousand  of  the  people  singing  and 
dancing  ;  and  three  thousand  more  on  the  road.  .  .  .” 

“  When  they  heard  news  of  their  lord  (who,  after  a  long 
absence,  was  drawing  near  to  the  castle),  every  heart  was  full  : 
When  shall  we  see  him  ?  Let  us  who  love  him  go  forth  to  meet 
him  ! — and  you,  canons  and  clerks  of  St.-Sauveur,  make  pro¬ 
cessions  in  his  honour  !  you,  knights,  come  with  us  !  ”  ( Girard 
de  Roussillon). 

Literary  works  are  confirmed  by  the  chronicles.  Suger  re¬ 
counts  how  Count  Eude  de  Corbeil  was  kidnapped  by  his  brother, 
Hugh  of  Crécy,  and  shut  up  in  the  castle  of  the  Ferté-Bernard  : 

“  At  this  news  a  great  number  of  the  people  of  Corbeil,  a 
castle  ( castellum )  enriched  by  a  company  of  knights  of  the  old 
nobility,  came  to  throw  themselves  at  the  feet  of  the  King. 
Weeping  they  told  him  of  the  imprisonment  of  the  Count  and 
begged  him  to  deliver  him.  The  King  gave  them  good  hope,  and 
their  grief  was  assuaged.” 

In  speaking  of  the  family  we  described  the  “  motte  ”  ;  in 
speaking  of  the  fief  we  described  the  keep.  This  keep,  the 

primitive  castle,  will  spread  out,  so  to  speak, 

Inhabitants  during  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries.  Not 

only  will  the  outer  wall  grow  larger,  but  within 
this  wall,  towers,  defensive  works,  and  the  other  seigniorial  build¬ 
ings  will  be  multiplied  ;  so  much  so  that,  as  Viollet-le-Duc 
points  out,  the  most  important  castles  seem  to  be  formed  of  a 
group  of  castles  enclosed  in  a  common  line  of  fortification,  and 
which  could  at  need,  having  each  an  independent  existence, 
engage  in  a  struggle  or  defend  themselves  against  one  another. 
26 


FORMATION  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 


This  great  castle,  formed  of  several  distinct  castles,  is  in¬ 
habited  not  only  by  soldiers  but  by  labourers  ;  artisans  are 
established  there,  smiths,  carpenters,  armourers,  harness- 
makers,  tailors,  who  work  for  the  lord  and  his  numerous 
“  kindred.’ ’  One  can  hear,  creaking  on  their  iron  staves,  the 
signs  indicating  mercers,  butchers,  ironmongers,  wine  and  beer 
merchants. 

Such  is  a  great  castle  at  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century, 
and  such  too  a  town  at  the  same  period. 

The  burgesses  are  vassals  who  render  to  their  lord  the  same 
services  as  the  vassals  of  the  fields.  They  are  equally  subject 
to  the  feudal  dues.  Their  share  in  the  communal  life  consists 
in  taking  their  place  in  the  lord’s  court  ;  they  are  among  his 
councillors  when  he  administers  justice,  take  part  in  the  meetings 
he  calls  ;  their  names  appear  as  witnesses  at  the  end  of  charters 
bearing  his  seal.  The  chief  of  them  are  soldiers,  knights. 
“  Seven  times  twenty  knights  stayed  normally  in  the  town  of 
of  St. -Quentin,”  we  read  in  Garin  le  Loherain ,  44  for  at  that  time 
knights  loved  to  stay  in  the  good  towns  and  in  the  seigniorial 
castles,  not,  as  now,  in  obscure  country  places,  farms,  and  woods 
to  live  with  the  sheep.”  (This  heroic  poem  has  come  down  to 
us  in  a  twelfth- century  version.)  The  text  is  confirmed  by  the 
Chronicles  of  Richer  and  Guibert  de  Nogent. 

These  knights  have  fortified  dwellings  in  the  town. 

44  About  this  time,”  writes  Gilbert  de  Mons,  44  there  were 
in  Ghent  many  men  powerful  through  their  connections  and 
strong  in  their  fortifications  :  enemies  of  one  another,  they 
often  had  recourse  to  arms.”  William  le  Breton  on  his  side 
tells  us  how  much  the  inhabitants  of  Lille  loved  their  houses 
with  their  towers  :  turritas  domos  !  Jean  de  Marmoutiers 
speaks  in  identical  terms  of  the  burgesses  of  Tours  ;  they 
clothe  themselves  in  purple,  in  vair  and  minever  ;  their  battle- 
mented  dwellings  are  guarded  by  massive  keeps. 

In  a  town  of  the  thirteenth  century  we  see,  then,  several 
classes  of  citizen  :  the  lord  and  his  immediate  family,  a  noble 
class  generally  called  the  44  knights  ”  ( chevaliers ),  burgesses 
engaged  in  business — the  knights  and  burgesses  form  the 
patrician  class  ;  artisans  and  labourers  ;  lastly,  real  serfs,  called 
the  44  beggars  ”  ( questaux ). 


27 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


These  different  classes  existed  everywhere,  but  they  are 
more  clearly  distinguished  in  the  little  towns  of  the  South, 
which  maintained  their  primitive  conditions  up  to  the  time  of 
the  drawing  up  of  the  Customs.  Take,  for  example,  Meil- 
han-en-Bazadais.  At  the  head  of  the  town  is  a  lord  of  Meilhan, 
who  has  surrounded  the  castle  and  the  “  bourg  ”  with  a  line 
of  fortifications.  The  town  has  three  parts  :  first,  the  castle  ; 
secondly,  the  “rock”;  thirdly,  the  “bourg.”  These  three 
quarters  are  inhabited  by  knights  free  from  all  dues  ;  two  of 
them,  the  “  rock  ”  and  the  “  bourg,”  are  inhabited  also  by 
burgesses  who  are  liable  to  the  lord  for  rents.  The  knights, 
who  form  the  noble  class,  are  called  the  gentlemen  ( gentels )  ; 
they  are  grouped  in  parages  (this  word  should  be  remembered). 
The  burgesses  ( borgnes )  and  the  gentlemen  are  the  only  ones 
who  play  a  public  part  in  the  town.  Below  them  are  the 
inhabitants  ( cazats )  (the  charter  is  drawn  up  in  Provençal). 
Finally,  on  the  lowest  rung,  are  the  men  of  servile  condition, 
the  questaux.  Moreover,  the  burgesses  could  also  have  serfs 
as  well  as  the  lord  and  the  knights.  The  lord  equips  a  knight 
to  perform  in  place  of  the  burgesses  the  military  service  claimed 
by  the  Count  of  Poitiers.  The  burgesses,  exempt  from  military 
service,  are  given  wholly  to  their  business.  The  lord,  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  feudal  custom,  owes  protection  to  the  people  and  the 
people  owe  assistance  to  their  lord.  Knights  and  burgesses 
should  help  each  other  against  all  strangers.  The  lord  receives 
a  Bordeaux  farthing  for  each  salmon  sold  on  the  butchers’ 
stalls,  for  at  Meilhan  the  butchers  sell  fish  ;  he  receives  a 
Bordeaux  penny  for  each  ox  sold,  and  three  farthings  per  pig. 
The  goods  of  persons  dying  intestate  and  leaving  no  family 
revert  to  him,  also  a  part  of  what  is  yielded  by  fines. 

Such  is,  in  its  essential  features,  the  type  of  urban  constitu¬ 
tions  in  the  early  part  of  the  feudal  period. 

The  towns  had  their  households  ( mesnies )  like  the  country 
districts,  family  organizations  and,  at  the  same  time,  feudal. 

The  important  burgesses,  the  patricians,  had  their 
“  Lignages  ”  f°ll°wers  ( mesniers ),  whom  the  documents  liken  to 

the  vassals  of  the  lords.  The  poetry  of  the  time 
shows  us  the  heads  of  these  urban  households  living  in  their  vast 
abodes,  shut  in  and  fortified.  These  urban  households  include 
28 


FORMATION  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 


the  family,  the  servants,  the  domestic  artisans,  dependants, 
some  questaux ,  i.e.  serfs — in  a  word,  the  familia,  of  which  we 
have  treated. 

The  phrase,  “  in  the  house  of  a  fèvre-mesnier  ”  (a  worker 
of  his  household),  is  found  in  Aubri  le  B our going. 

The  “  mesnie,”  as  it  developed  in  the  towns,  produced 
there  groups  more  extensive  than  itself,  the  lignages  or  parages 
of  the  French  towns,  the  vinaves  of  Liège,  the  Flemish  geslach- 
ten,  the  geschlecter  of  the  Rhine  towns.  It  is  at  Metz  that 
these  parages  can  be  studied  most  distinctly  and  at  a  period 
comparatively  close  to  our  own.  The  names  alone,  parages, 
lignages,  geschlecter,  would  suffice  to  indicate  the  family  char¬ 
acter  of  these  urban  groups.  The  parages  are  subdivided  into 
branches,  the  branches  into  households  ( mesnies )  or  “hostels.” 
The  parage  itself  bears  a  family  name  ;  each  of  these  parages 
has  an  organization  at  once  of  the  family  and  military,  i.e. 
feudal  ;  each  of  them  forms  a  distinct  and  autonomous  group 
in  the  town.  They  organize  military  expeditions,  make 
treaties,  each  on  its  own  account,  sometimes  with  the  stranger 
against  one  or  other  neighbouring  parage  of  fellow-citizens 
(i concitoyen ).  It  is  the  feudal  system  in  the  town. 

And  as  in  the  feudal  organization  proper  the  movement 
has  come  from  the  lower  classes.  The  households  ( mesnies )  or 
“  hostels  ”  have  gone  to  form  the  branches,  the  branches  have 
formed  the  parages,  and  these  last,  under  the  authority  of 
the  suzerain,  rule  the  city. 

The  material  structure  of  the  town  was  made  in  the  image 
of  its  moral  structure. 

w  ,  The  town  of  Paris  did  not  develop,  as  one 

Thp  TTrhan  r 

Fiefs  might  be  tempted  to  think,  from  a  central  kernel, 

growing,  spreading  from  place  to  place.  There 
were,  on  the  contrary,  a  certain  number  of  generating  kernels, 
each  of  which  developed,  and  grew  little  by  little,  drawing 
nearer  together  in  their  growth  and  finally  merging  in  one 
another.  Contrary  to  the  general  opinion,  the  Cité  did  not  play 
the  part  of  a  great  splash  of  oil  which  gained  the  banks  of  the 
Seine  and  swamped  the  land  as  far  as  the  present  line  of  forti¬ 
fications  :  it  was  an  indefinite  number  of  little  cities,  placed,  one 
under  episcopal  authority,  another  under  the  royal  authority, 

29 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


others  under  the  rule  of  an  abbey,  others  still  under  the  rule  of 
a  military  order,  but  the  greater  number  under  the  suzerainty 
of  a  simple  lord,  which  formed  and  developed  singly,  living 
cells,  growing  by  the  force  of  their  internal  energy,  up  to  the 
moment  at  which,  having  approached  one  another,  they  rased 
their  walls  within  the  common  fortification. 

The  town  of  Paris  was  thus  formed  by  the  juxtaposition 
of  a  certain  number  of  fortresses  each  of  which  had  its  own 
system  of  defence,  each  surrounded  by  its  own  gardens,  woods, 
meadows,  and  free  spaces,  each  enclosed  by  a  line  of  fortifica¬ 
tion,  i.e.  by  high  walls  without  any  opening  to  the  outside 
world,  and  surrounded  bv  a  moat  filled  with  water,  and  each 
of  which  was  the  dwelling-place  of  a  lord  who  grouped  his 
household  round  him,  of  a  patrician  who  governed  his  clients, 
of  a  'paterfamilias  who  lived  in  the  bosom  of  his  familia. 

Paris  afforded,  therefore,  in  the  thirteenth  century,  the 
aspect  which  Moscow  is  still  to  present  in  the  eighteenth,  as 
described  by  the  Count  de  Ségur  :  a  vast  group  of  castles,  each 
of  which  is  surrounded  by  its  village,  protected  by  its  keep, 
surrounded  by  its  special  fortification. 

Within  each  of  these  enclosures  were  seen  many  houses  of 
merchants  and  artisans,  but  they  were  domestic  merchants 
and  artisans,  ministeriales  domus ,  employed  in  the  service  of 
the  seigniorial  familia ,  resembling  the  fèvres-mesniers  of  the 
feudal  castles  which  we  mentioned  just  now.  They  ministered 
to  the  needs  of  the  relatives  of  the  seigneur  ;  they  worked  and 
traded  under  cover  of  his  patronage.  Amidst  the  general 
prosperity  this  population  grew  and  multiplied  within  these 
various  seignories.  The  lords  are  then  to  be  seen  building 
within  their  enclosures,  confining  themselves  to  the  centre 
of  their  property,  dividing  into  dwellings  the  parts  which 
border  on  the  public  ways.  Each  of  these  little  family  towns 
enjoyed  autonomy  with  its  particular  enclosure  within  the 
common  enclosure.  Let  us  reflect  that  at  the  beginning  of  the 
reign  of  Louis  XIV  in  the  full  seventeenth  century  more  than 
half  Paris  depended  on  individual  lords — there  were  thirty- 
four  of  them — each  of  whom  had  judicial  rights  over  his  terri¬ 
tory  and  that  one  of  these  urban  lordships  was  to  preserve  its 
independence  down  to  the  Revolution. 

30 


FORMATION  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 


It  was  the  same  in  the  town  of  Tours. 

A  first  town  had  been  confined  within  the  line  of  the  ancient 
Roman  camp,  near  which  was  built  another  town,  that  of  St. 
Martin’s  Abbey,  Martinopole ,  very  soon  called  Châteauneuf, ‘ 
also  surrounded  by  a  line  of  fortifications  and  placed  under 
the  authority  of  a  separate  feudal  lord,  in  this  case  the  abbot 
of  the  monastery.  Another  abbey,  that  of  St.  Julien,  was 
built  between  the  castrum  and  Châteauneuf  ;  so  here  is  a  third 
little  town  ( bourg ),  for  St.  Julien  surrounds  itself  with  walls. 
There  are  three  towns  in  one  ;  and  now  comes  a  fourth  :  the 
town  of  the  Count,  the  feudal  town.  A  castle  is  built  with  its 
courts,  its  towers,  its  keep  ;  and  before  long  it  produces  a  new 
population.  It  makes  thus  a  fourth  village  which  is  to  develop 
and  maintain  an  independent  existence  under  the  suzerainty 
of  the  Count  of  Tours.  They  are  four  towns,  separate  but 
juxtaposed,  and  surrounded  by  a  common  line  of  fortification. 
And  now  comes  a  fifth,  then  a  sixth,  then  a  seventh,  and  an 
eighth.  In  the  sixteenth  century  we  find  that  Tours  is  still 
divided  into  thirty-one  different  fiefs  ;  in  the  sixteenth  century 
still  thirty-one  lords  justices  share  judicial  authority  in  the 
town  of  Tours.  This  means  that  in  the  beginning  we  have  had 
thirty-one  feudal  groups,  thirty-one  feudal  lords,  each  of  whom 
had  his  domain,  his  fortifications,  his  subjects,  his  “justice,” 
and  that  the  union  of  these  formed  the  town  of  Tours. 

In  time  the  industry  of  the  inhabitants  filled  with  buildings 
the  enclosure  surrounding  each  of  these  fiefs  :  houses  filled 
the  free  spaces  round  the  abbeys  and  keeps,  and  the  interior 
walls  fell,  leaving  only  to  the  agglomeration  one  exterior  wall  of 
defence  :  the  town  of  Tours  was  formed. 

For  Amboise,  a  passage  of  the  old  Chronicles  of  Anjou 
enables  us  to  reconstruct  this  work  of  formation  with  striking 
precision  :  44  There  were  then  (eleventh  century)  at  Amboise 
three  lords  ( optimates )  none  of  whom  regarded  himself  as 
inferior  to  the  others,  and,  in  fact,  was  not  ;  none  of  whom 
owed  service  to  another,  and  each  of  whom  had  a  fortified 
dwelling.  The  first  was  Sulpice  I,  lord  of  Amboise,  who  had 
caused  to  be  built  there  a  stone  tower  so  high  that  from  the 
top  one  could  see  as  far  as  Tours.  (This  stone  keep  had  been 
built  on  the  site  of  a  wooden  tower,  one  of  those  primitive 

31 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


keeps  already  described.)  The  second  J  of  these  lords  was 
Foucois  de  Thorigné,  who  had  his  dwelling  on  the  Motte- 
Foucois  ;  the  third  was  Ernoul,  son  of  Leon  de  Meung-sur- 
Loire,  keeper  of  the  Count’s  palace  called  the  Domicile.  On 
him  depended  the  greater  part  of  the  castrum  of  Amboise.” 
The  same  Chronicle  of  the  Counts  of  Anjou  speaks  also  of  a 
fourth  strong  castle,  the  one  which  Count  Geoffrey  of  the 
Grey  Tunic  gave  to  Landri  de  Châteaudun,  and  which  was 
situated  in  the  Southern  part  of  the  quarter  of  Amboise  called 
Châteauneuf.  The  Chronicle  of  the  Counts  of  Anjou  shows 
then,  with  a  common  fortification  enclosing  the  castrum  (town) 
of  Amboise,  four  distinct  lordships,  independent  of  one  another, 
each  of  which  contains  a  keep  and  its  feudal  territory  [cum 
omnibus  que  jure  turri  appendebant  ;  .  .  .  and  further  on  : 
cum  omnibus  feodis  per  tine  ntibus),  each  of  which  includes  the 
head  of  a  fief  and  its  dependencies  (domum  munitissimam  .  .  . 
cum  multis  feodis  Ambaziaco  donavit),  four  feudal  lordships 
whose  union,  under  the  suzerainty  of  the  Count  of  Anjou, 
forms  the  town  of  Amboise.  Round  each  of  these  keeps 
artisans  have  gathered  and  work  at  home  there  to  satisfy  the 
needs  of  their  respective  barons.  These  four  distinct  fiefs, 
united  in  the  same  enclosure,  yet  remain  so  much  strangers  to 
one  another  that  they  are  seen  frequently  at  war  with  one 
another. 

Archembaud .  de  Busançais  and  his  brother  Sulpice,  says 
the  chronicler,  fought  with  Landri  de  Châteaudun.  From 
their  fortified  dwellings  and  from  the  Domicile  of  the  Count 
they  often  attacked  Landri  and  his  people.  And  further  on, 
à  propos  of  the  struggles  of  Sulpice  I,  lord  of  Amboise,  and 
his  brother  Lisois  against  Foucois  de  Thorigné,  Bouchard  de 
Montrésor,  and  Foulque  le  Réchin,  the  Count  of  Anjou  : 
44  They  had  fortified  their  keep  at  Amboise  so  that,  in  the  town 
itself,  there  were  often  fights  to  the  death.” 

Here  are  the  details  of  one  of  these  struggles  in  the  town 
of  Amboise  between  enemy  fiefs  :  44  Foulque  le  Réchin,  with 
his  army,  occupied  the  Domicile  (the  castle  of  the  Count  of 
Anjou).  Thence  his  balistas  and  cross-bows  rained  arrows 
on  the  castle  of  the  Lord  of  Amboise  ;  but  the  castle  retaliated 
with  arrows,  and  darts  from  cross-bows  and  enormous  stones. 
82 


FORMATION  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 


The  people  of  the  Domicile  crushed  their  opponents  with  stones 
launched  by  trebuchets.  Around  the  walls  sounded  horns 
and  trumpets.  The  neighbouring  buildings  were  set  on  fire. 
They  only  ceased  to  fire  the  place  when  the  town  was  destroyed, 
including  St.  Mary’s  Church.  And  after  this,  battering-rams 
and  heavy-wheeled  chariots  were  set  against  the  walls,  but  in 
vain.  After  a  siege  of  five  weeks  the  Count  of  Anjou  drew  off. 
At  last  an  agreement  was  reached,  and,  says  the  chronicler, 
the  people  of  the  town  rejoiced  at  the  return  of  peace.” 

Arles,  likewise,  was  formed  by  the  union  of  some  ten  castles, 
or  lordships,  or  different  towns.  We  say  “  castles  ”  ( chateaux ), 
“  lordships  ”  ( seigneuries ),  or  “  towns  ”  (villes),  because  the 
expressions  are  here  synonymous  :  first,  the  city  which  de¬ 
pended  on  the  Archbishop  ;  secondly,  the  old  town  (  Vieux - 
Bourg),  which  was  divided  into  three  different  fiefs,  one  of 
which  was  held  by  the  Count  of  Provence,  the  other  by  the 
Archbishop,  and  the  third  by  the  family  of  Porcellet  ; 
thirdly,  the  market,  which  had  as  its  superior  suzerain  the 
Archbishop,  but  was  itself  divided  into  two  lordships,  one  of 
which  belonged  to  the  Viscounts  of  Marseilles  and  the  other 
to  the  Provosts  of  Arles  ;  finally,  the  new  town  (Bourg- Neuf), 
the  domain  of  the  Seigneur  des  Baux. 

Metz  was  formed  by  the  union  of  six  different  towns,  the 
famous  4  4  paraiges,”  the  first  five  of  which  have  family  names  ; 
the  sixth,  of  later  formation,  being  called  “  the  commonalty  ” 
(le  commun). 

In  Burgundy  are  found  unimportant  towns  divided  among 
five,  six,  or  seven  different  lords  within  one  palisade  or  one 
wall. 

As  for  urban  government,  when  it  made  its  appearance, 

it  was  composed  either  of  the  court  of  the  principal  lord,  of 

the  “  good  men  ”  who  had  their  seats  near  him 

p  f  on  the  dais  of  the  great  hall  (salle),  or  of  an 

uovemment.  j  ^  .  i  i  ^  n 

assembly  comprised  of  those  whose  sphere  of 

activity  was  common  to  the  various  lordships  of  which  the 

town  was  composed  :  at  Paris  the  company  of  sailors,  the 

boatmen  who  brought  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  Parisian  fiefs 

the  necessities  of  existence,  or  who  exported  the  products  of 

their  industry.  In  such  and  such  a  town  of  the  South  the 

c  38 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


common  council  might  be  composed  of  the  workers  who  kept 
the  exterior  fortifications  in  repair  ;  but  generally  the  com¬ 
munal  assembly  was  composed  of  the  heads  of  the  patrician 
families,  of  the  lignages  and  parages ,  the  grouping  of  which 
formed  the  city. 

And  if  it  is  true  that  in  course  of  time  one  does  not  always 
distinguish  the  evidence  of  these  divisions  between  which  the 
towns  of  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  century  were  shared — and 
which  the  very  closeness  of  the  agglomeration  has  helped  to 
efface — one  notices  at  least  the  general  principle  which  has 
governed  the  formation  of  the  towns  in  France  :  they  were 
formed  feudally,  like  the  fiefs  themselves,  by  the  development 
of  families  ;  and  many  of  them  preserved  the  living  traces 
of  this  origin  up  to  a  late  period  in  their  history. 


Sources. — Hariulf,  Chron.  de  V Abbaye  de  St.  Riquier ,  Chron.  des  Contes 
d'Anjou ,  ed.  Halphen  and  Poupardin,  1913  ;  Suger,  Vie  de  Louis  le  Gros , 
ed.  Molinier,  1887  ;  Victor  Mortet,  Textes  relatifs  à  l'histoire  de  l'archi¬ 
tecture ,  XT  et  XIIe  Siècles ,  1911  ;  Wace,  Le  Roman  de  Brut ,  ed.  Le  Roux 
de  Lincy,  1836,  2  vols.  ;  Le  Roman  d'Aubri  le  Bourgoing ,  ed.  Tarbe,  1849  ; 
Girard  de  Roussillon,  ed.  P.  Meyer,  1884  ;  J.  Renard,  L'Escouffle ,  ed. 
Michelant  and  Meyer,  1894  ;  Recueil  des  fabliaux ,  ed.  Montaiglon  and 
Raynaud,  1872-90,  6  vols.  ;  Archives  historiques  de  la  Gironde ,  tome  xxv. 

Historical  Works. — Viollet-le-Duc,  Diet,  de  V architect.,  1854-68  ; 
Legrand,  Paris  in  1880,  Coll,  de  l’hist.  gen.  de  Paris,  1868  ;  Drouyn,  La 
Guienne  Militaire,  1865,  2  vols.  ;  H.  Klipffel,  Les  Paraiges  messins,  1863  ; 
Fritz  Kleiner,  Verfassungsgesch.  der  Provence,  Leipzig,  1900  ;  Jacq.  Flach, 
Les  Origines  de  l'anc.  France,  1886-1917,  4  vols.  ;  F.  Keutgen,  Urkunden 
zür  Stadtischen  Verfassungsgesch .,  Berlin,  1899  ;  P.  Dognon,  Les  Institut, 
pol.  et  administ.  du  pays  de  Languedoc,  1897  ;  H.  Pirenne,  L'Origine  des 
constitutions  urbaines  au  Moyen  Age,  taken  from  the  Revue  Historique, 
1899  ;  by  the  same,  Villes,  Marchés  et  Marchands  au  Moyen  Age,  taken  from 
Rev.  Hist.,  1898  ;  G.  Espinas,  “  Les  Guerres  familiales  dans  la  commune  de 
Douai,”  Nouv.  Rev.  Hist,  de  droit  franc,  et  étrang.,  July-Aug.,  1899  ;  Imbart 
de  la  Tour,  Hist,  de  la  Nation  franc.,  ed.  by  Hanotaux,  tome  iii.  (1921). 


We  have  seen  how  the  family  was  organized  amid  the  turmoil 
of  the  ninth  century.  It  developed  and  produced  the  household 

The  Kins  (mesnie)  ;  from  the  household  came  the  fief  ; 

the  grouping  together  of  the  little  fiefs  produced 
the  great  fiefs  :  to  the  north  of  the  Loire  the  County  of  Flanders, 
the  Duchy  of  Normandy,  the  County  of  Brittany,  which  Philip 
the  Fair  raised  to  a  Duchy,  the  County  of  Anjou,  the  County 
34 


FORMATION  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 


of  Blois,  the  County  of  Champagne,  the  Duchy  of  Burgundy  ; 
to  the  south  of  the  Loire  the  County  of  Poitiers,  the  Duchy  of 
Gascony,  the  County  of  Toulouse,  the  County  of  Barcelona  ; 
for,  if  the  kingdom  of  France  was  deprived,  in  the  tenth 
century,  on  the  left  banks  of  the  Seine  and  the  Rhone  of  part 
of  the  territory  which  has  since  come  back  to  her,  if  Lyons 
and  Besançon  belonged  to  the  Empire,  on  the  other  hand  the 
County  of  Flanders,  Ypres,  Ghent,  and  Bruges,  and  the  County 
of  Barcelona  were  included  in  it. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  impotence  of  the  royal  power  in 
the  tenth  century.  The  nation  organized  itself  by  its  own  forces. 
In  the  second  half  of  the  tenth  century  this  process  of  recon¬ 
struction  will  reach  the  summit  of  the  social  edifice.  While 
the  last  Carolingians  betray  their  weakness  during  the  in¬ 
vasions,  a  new  family  installs  itself  on  the  borders  of  the 
Seine,  where  its  strength  and  activity  are  made  manifest.  By  its 
traditions  and  its  special  organization  it  is  in  harmony  with  the 
new  conditions  of  society  ;  it  is  their  living  expression. 

As  a  rich  landowner  on  the  banks  of  the  Loire,  Robert 
the  Strong  exercised  there  the  functions  of  Count  of  Anjou. 
Commissioned  by  Charles  the  Bald,  with  the  title  of  Duke  of 
the  French,  to  defend  against  the  invaders  the  region  included 
between  the  lower  course  of  the  Seine  and  that  of  the  Loire, 
he  showed  the  pirates  his  courage.  His  son,  Eude,  increased 
the  fame  of  his  father’s  name  in  the  defence  of  Paris  in  885. 
He  there  exhibited  a  heroism  so  brilliant  that,  when  the  throne 
of  France  fell  vacant  in  887 — on  the  death  of  Charles  the  Fat — 
Eude  was  chosen  King.  The  election  was  made  by  the  assembly 
of  the  great  men  ( Grands )  of  the  country,  i.e.  by  the  heads 
of  the  most  powerful  families  to  the  north  of  the  Loire. 

Eude  died  in  898,  and  from  this  date  the  crown  is  seen 
passing  from  the  one  family  to  the  other,  from  the  descendants 
of  Charlemagne  to  those  of  Robert  the  Strong,  at  the  will  of 
the  barons.  Charles  the  Simple,  a  Carolingian,  reigned  from 
898  to  922.  He  confirmed  Robert,  the  brother  of  Eude,  in 
his  title  of  Duke  of  the  French.  And  Robert  was  proclaimed 
King  by  the  assembly  of  the  great  nobles,  when  Charles  the 
Simple  was  deposed  after  having  been  conquered  by  the  German 
Emperor,  Henry  the  Fowler  (922). 


85 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Far  from  taking  his  disgrace  patiently,  Charles  the  Simple 
attacked  his  rival  and  killed  him  outside  Soissons.  Vanquished 
in  his  turn  by  Hugh  the  Great  or  the  Fair,  the  son  of  Robert, 
Charles  fled  into  Germany.  Returning  to  France  he  was 
captured  and  imprisoned  in  the  Tower  of  Peronne,  where  he 
died  in  929.  Hugh  the  Fair,  who  could  have  assumed  the 
royal  crown,  had  preferred  to  give  it  to  the  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
his  brother-in-law.  This  latter  reigned  up  to  the  year  936, 
when  the  crown  returned  once  more  to  the  Carolingians,  in  the 
person  of  Louis  IV,  the  son  of  Charles  the  Simple,  who  was 
called  Louis  from  Overseas  (d' Outremer),  because  he  was  brought 
back  from  England  to  be  made  king. 

It  was  again  Hugh  the  Fair  who  disposed  of  the  crown. 
Louis  d’Outremer  was  hardly  fifteen  years  old  when  he  was 
anointed  at  Reims,  on  the  19th  June  936.  He  was  to  show 
energy  ;  but  his  power  had  not  the  necessary  roots  in  the 
country.  He  tried  to  free  himself  from  the  tutelage  with  which 
Hugh  the  Fair  overwhelmed  him.  An  armed  struggle  took 
place  between  the  King  and  his  powerful  vassal.  In  the 
course  of  an  expedition  in  Normandy,  Louis  was  captured  and 
delivered  to  Hugh  the  Fair,  who  imprisoned  him  at  Rouen,  in 
the  keeping  of  Thibaud  the  Cunning,  the  Count  of  Chartres 
(945-46). 

Louis  d’Outremer  gave  up  the  town  of  Laon  to  his  terrible 
protector  and  so  recovered  his  liberty.  Will  he  recover  his 
power  ? 

44  Hugh  !  ”  said  he,  44  how  many  things  you  have  taken  from 
me  !  You  have  taken  for  yourself  the  city  of  Reims  ;  you 
have  seized  from  me  the  city  of  Laon,  the  only  two  towns  in 
which  I  found  a  welcome,  my  only  defence  !  My  father  (Charles 
the  Simple),  captive  and  thrown  into  dungeons,  was  delivered 
by  death  from  like  misfortunes  ;  reduced  to  the  same  extremities, 
I  have  only  the  show  of  my  ancestral  kingship  !  ” 

In  945,  however,  Lothaire  succeeded  without  opposition  to 
his  father,  Louis  d’Outremer.  In  979  Lothaire  associated 
with  himself  in  the  kingship  his  son  Louis  V.  Hugh  Capet, 
son  of  Hugh  the  Great  (who  had  died  on  the  16th  June  950), 
in  his  turn  entered  into  conflict  with  him.  44  The  King  and  the 
Duke,”  writes  Richer,  44  displayed  so  great  an  animosity  against 
36 


FORMATION  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 

one  another  that  the  State  suffered  for  several  years  from  their 
conflict.”  But  what  happened  while  these  storms  raged  over 
the  protective  heights  ?  “  Properties  were  usurped,  the  un¬ 

fortunate  were  oppressed  ;  and  the  wicked  overwhelmed  the 
weak  with  cruel  calamities.”  Then,  adds  Richer,  “  the  wisest 
members  of  the  two  parties  met  together  to  come  to  an  agree¬ 
ment.” 

Louis  V  succeeded  Lothaire  in  986.  He  was  crowned  at 
Compiègne,  at  the  age  of  eighteen  years.  For  the  sake  of 
peace  he  was  content  to  give  himself  up  entirely  to  the  direc¬ 
tion  of  Hugh  Capet  ;  but  hardly  had  Louis  reigned  a  year  when 
he  died  from  an  accident  while  hunting  between  Senlis  and 
Compiègne  (21st  or  22nd  May  987).  He  left  an  uncle,  Charles 
of  Lorraine,  the  legitimate  representative  of  the  Carolingian 
line.  The  heads  of  the  great  families,  called  together  at  Noyon 
by  Adalbéron,  the  Archbishop  of  Reims,  proclaimed  as  king 
Hugh  Capet,  the  son  of  Hugh  the  Great  (1st  June  987).  This 
surname,  “  Capet,”  already  borne  by  Hugh  the  Great,  and 
which  was  to  become  the  designation  of  the  whole  race,  came 
from  the  cloak  in  which  the  Duke  of  France  delighted  to  robe 
himself,  the  hood  of  which  came  down  on  the  head  ( capet , 
a  little  cape).  The  election  of  Hugh  Capet  was  due,  without 
any  doubt,  to  his  territorial  and  family  position,  which  made 
him  among  the  barons  north  of  the  Loire  the  one  who  possessed 
to  the  highest  degree  the  qualities  which  characterized  each 
one  of  them. 

As  early  as  the  year  985  did  not  Gerbert,  scholar  of  Reims, 
i.e.  director  of  the  Cathedral  School  at  Reims,  the  future 
Sylvester  II,  write  to  some  lords  of  Lorraine  : 

“  Lothaire  governs  France  in  name  only  ;  the  real  King  is 
Hugh.”  Gerbert  appears  to  have  been,  in  collaboration  with 
his  archbishop,  Adalbéron,  the  principal  agent  in  the  Capetian 
election. 

Listen  to  the  address  by  which  Adalbéron,  Archbishop  of 
Reims,  had  supported  the  candidature  of  the  new  sovereign 
in  the  Assembly  of  the  great  nobles,  at  Senlis,  May  987  : 

“  Take  for  your  head  the  Duke  (of  the  French),  glorious  by 
reason  of  his  actions,  his  family,  and  his  men — the  Duke  in 
whom  you  will  find  a  guardian  not  only  of  public  matters  but 

37 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


of  your  private  affairs.  You  will  have  in  him  a  father  (eum 
pro  patre  habebitis).  Who  has  not  in  seeking  refuge  with  him 
found  in  him  a  defence  ( patrocinium )  ?  Who,  deprived  of  the 
help  of  his  own  people,  has  not  returned,  thanks  to  him,  into 
the  possession  of  his  goods  ?  ” 

In  these  few  lines  Adalbéron  sketches  the  portrait  of  the 
feudal  lord  as  we  have  already  seen  him. 

On  the  1st  June  987,  then,  the  Assembly  of  the  great  nobles, 
meeting  at  Noyon,  proclaimed  Hugh  Capet  king. 

Through  the  medium  of  the  feudal  baron  the  royal  power 
was  thus  developed  from  the  paternal  authority.  “  The  King,” 
says  Hugh  de  Fleury,  “  is  the  image  of  the  father.”  And  let  us 
be  careful  not  to  see  here  only  an  abstract  connection,  a  remote 
origin,  which  would  be  shown  in  exterior  forms,  mere  words 
or  formulas  ;  we  discern  a  direct  origin,  established  by  precise 
and  concrete  facts,  the  consequences  of  which  we  see  continued 
through  the  centuries  in  the  most  living  manner. 

The  King,  Hugh  Capet,  directly  governs  his  domain,  the 
royal  domain  ;  he  exercises  authority  as  in  a  family  over  the 
heads  of  the  greatest  domains,  themselves  suzerains  of  other 
vassals,  who  have,  in  their  turn,  other  vassals  under  their 
orders.  This  process  of  formation  has  been  seen  working 
itself  out  from  the  base  to  the  summit  :  it  will  only  be  completed 
under  Philip  Augustus,  in  the  second  half  of  the  twelfth  century, 
when  the  King  will  have  succeeded  at  last  in  getting  his  authority 
recognized  by  the  heads  of  what  have  been  called  the  great 
fiefs.  In  the  tenth  century,  then,  France  is  formed  by  the  hier¬ 
archical  grouping  of  a  multitude  of  little  States,  an  aggregate 
of  principalities,  of  varying  dimensions  and  importance,  which 
are  joined  together  and  superimposed,  from  the  thousands 
and  thousands  of  families  which  form  the  base,  each  of  them 
strongly  constituted  under  their  natural  head,  up  to  the  summit 
where  the  King,  himself  the  head  of  a  family,  exercises  over 
these  other  heads  of  families,  the  feudal  lords,  a  paternal  auth¬ 
ority.  This  authority,  which  is  above  all  a  moral  authority, 
forms  the  only  tie  which  joins  these  thousands  and  thousands 
of  little  States  to  one  another  :  it  forms  the  national  unity. 

It  has  often  been  remarked  by  historians  that  it  might 
seem  surprising  that  the  feudal  aristocracy  did  not  profit  at 
38 


FORMATION  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 


Noyon  by  the  chance  which  put  into  their  hands  the  destiny 
of  the  State,  to  render  themselves  supreme,  by  freeing  them¬ 
selves  from  royalty  and  declaring  it  abolished.  The  existence 
of  the  patronal  King,  at  the  head  of  the  social  structure,  as  we 
have  just  seen  it  formed,  was  a  necessity  :  the  authority  of  the 
King  formed  the  keystone  of  the  pile.  It  was  indispensable 
to  it.  For  the  nation,  parcelled  out  into  an  infinity  of  different 
States,  this  coping  was  necessary  ;  without  it,  the  nation 
would  have  fallen  back  into  the  anarchy  from  which  it  had 
freed  itself  with  so  much  difficulty. 

Under  the  paternal  authority  of  the  King,  France  is  governed 
like  a  great  family.  The  Queen  “  keeps  house  for  royalty.” 
The  State  treasure  is  under  her  care.  In  appearing  before  the 
King  she  is  able  to  say  to  him  : 

Behold  your  loved  one  and  your  treasurer. 

The  chamberlain,  who  would  nowadays  be  called  the  Minister 
of  Finance,  is  her  subordinate.  Robert  II,  the  successor  of 
Hugh  Capet,  took  pleasure  in  praising  the  skill  of  Queen  Con¬ 
stance  in  the  management  of  the  public  money. 

Next  to  the  father  and  the  mother  comes  the  eldest  son. 
From  infancy  his  name  appears  in  the  royal  charters.  The 
agreement  of  these  three  wills — that  of  the  King,  the  Queen,  and 
their  eldest  son — is  often  mentioned  in  acts.  These  three 
together  represent  what  we  should  call  “  the  Crown,”  enjoying 
that  inviolability,  that  supreme  authority  which  the  men  of 
the  time  attributed  to  the  Capetian  trinity.  To  the  father — 
the  King,  in  fact — the  mother,  and  the  son,  is  joined,  if  she  is 
still  alive,  the  Queen-Mother,  the  widow  of  the  late  King — 
“  the  White  Queen,”  as  she  comes  to  be  called.  For,  up  to  the 
time  of  Catherine  de  Medicis,  the  King’s  widow  wears  white 
all  her  life  as  mourning  for  the  dead  Prince.  During  the  reign 
of  her  son  she  continues  to  share  the  exercise  of  power.  Though 
Robert  II  had  long  attained  his  majority  and  had  been  associate 
King  when  Hugh  Capet,  his  father,  died,  his  mother  reigned 
with  him  in  the  real  sense  of  the  word. 

Then  come  the  brothers.  Their  rights  in  these  first  centuries 
of  the  Capetian  monarchy  are  much  more  extensive  than  those 
they  will  draw  later  from  the  appanages.  During  the  first 

39 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


part  of  the  Middle  Ages  it  was  the  royal  family  which  adminis¬ 
tered  the  country  under  the  direction  of  its  head. 

As  to  the  executive  power,  it  is  found  naturally  in  the  hands 
of  the  household  servants  attached  to  the  reigning  family. 
These  are  grouped  into  six  44  métiers  ”  [minister ia),  six  ministries  : 
the  kitchen,  the  pantry,  the  wine-cellars,  the  fruit-loft,  the 
stable,  and  the  chamber,  through  which  are  scattered  a  com¬ 
pany  of  servants  under  the  direction  of  the  great  officers  : 
the  seneschal,  the  master  of  the  pantry,  the  butler,  the  con¬ 
stable,  and  the  chamberlain,  personal  servants  of  the  monarch. 

The  seneschal  rules  the  kitchen  and  sees  that  the  fire  is 
kindled  ;  he  arranges  the  prince’s  table.  44  Seneschal  of  the 
provisions,”  Bertrand  de  Bar  will  call  him  in  the  twelfth  century. 
The  seneschal  has  44  the  water  announced  ”  and  the  horns 
sounded  to  warn  the  lords  of  the  palace  that  they  have  to  get 
ready  for  a  meal  and  wash  their  hands.  The  seneschal  is  the 
gentleman  carver  ;  he  cuts  up  the  meat  for  the  prince’s  table. 
When  the  meal  is  finished,  he  sees  to  the  washing  of  the  vessels, 
after  which  he  receives  from  the  cook  a  piece  of  meat  to  which 
the  pantler  and  butler  add  two  loaves  and  three  pints  of  wine. 
The  seneschal  keeps  the  household  of  the  King  in  order,  and 
his  importance  increases  as  the  nourris ,  the  people  whom  the 
King  brings  up  and  admits  into  his  house,  increase  in  number. 
He  keeps  the  keys  of  the  doors  ;  he  arranges  the  hospitality 
of  the  palace  and  sees  to  the  lodging  of  newcomers. 

The  King  confides  to  him  the  education  of  his  son. 

The  chansons  de  geste  name  the  different  offices  of  the  royal 
household  through  which  this  eminent  position  is  reached. 
Girbert  de  Metz,  introduced  into  the  Court  by  the  Queen, 
fills  at  first  the  position  of  huntsman  ;  then  he  becomes 
falconer,  and  finally  seneschal  at  a  wage  of  three  Parisian 
pounds  per  week. 

The  word  44  seneschal,”  itself,  indicates  his  functions — an 
expression  of  German  origin  and  which  meant  in  the  beginning 
a  44  family  servant.”  And  in  numerous  French  documents  of 
the  Middle  Ages  44  seneschal  ”  is  exactly  synonymous  with 
44  domestic.” 

The  seneschal  gives  the  pass-word  to  the  sentinel  who 
watches  over  the  safety  of  the  King  ;  he  has  sovereign  justice 
40 


FORMATION  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 


over  offences  or  crimes  committed  within  the  precincts  of  the 
palace.  In  times  of  war  he  sees  to  the  arrangement  of  the 
royal  tent  and  follows  his  master  in  expeditions  in  which  he 
bears  his  standard.  44  A  service,”  says  Bertrand  de  Bar, 
“  which  commands  all  the  others.”  Under  the  royal  authority 
the  seneschal  governs  France  : 

And  ought  to  have  France  altogether  at  his  discretion, 

He  is  the  Seneschal,  he  has  the  Gonfanon. 

After  the  seneschal  comes  the  constable,  comes  stabuli,  the 
count  of  the  stable.  He  watches  over  the  King’s  stable, 
controls  the  fodder,  buys  the  horses  ;  he  takes  in  hand  the 
cleaning  of  the  stalls  by  the  grooms  ;  he  can  also  keep  four 
of  his  horses  in  his  master’s  stables  and  take  from  the  kitchen 
meat  for  his  own  use.  From  the  fact  that  he  is  concerned  with 
the  King’s  stable  the  constable  becomes,  as  time  goes  on, 
Chief  of  the  cavalry  and  then  Commander-in-chief  of  the  army. 

The  butler  ruled  over  the  cup-bearers  as  the  constable 
over  the  stablemen.  He  offered  wine  to  their  majesties  and 
had  the  care  of  their  stores  of  wine.  He  distributed  wine 
to  guests  in  the  palace  and  had  charge  of  the  silver.  He 
looked  after  the  vineyards  of  the  Crown  and  administered 
their  proceeds.  He  was  concerned  not  only  to  replenish  the 
cellars  of  the  King,  but  to  dispose  of  the  excess  of  the  harvests. 
He  set  up  the  manorial  presses  and  got  in  the  dues  for 
4 4  tonlieu  ”  (toll  paid  for  standing  in  a  market),  pressing 
(pressurage),  and  drilling  (forage),  which  led  to  his  acting  as 
judge  in  the  disputes  to  which  these  customs  gave  rise.  In 
this  way  it  was  not  long  before  he  took  part  in  the  administra¬ 
tion  of  the  domain  and  the  management  of  the  treasury  ; 
which  brought  him  later  to  the  presidency  of  the  Chamber  of 
Accounts  (Chambre  des  Comptes ). 

The  grand  chamberlain  directs  the  service  of  the  private 
apartments  ;  he  has  the  superintendence  of  the  furniture  and 
clothes  of  the  King.  He  introduces  into  the  presence  of  the 
Sovereign  the  vassals  who  come  to  tender  him  their  oath  of 
fidelity  and  homage,  and  he  takes  as  perquisite  (butine)  on  this 
occasion  the  cloaks  which  they  wear  and  which  they  must 
leave  behind  in  token  of  respect  at  the  moment  they  appear 
before  the  prince.  In  the  44  chamber  ”  is  found  what  we 

41 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


should  call  the  “  strong-box.”  And  so,  behold,  the  chamber- 
lain  is  treasurer  of  the  realm.  He  commands  the  valets,  the 
tailors,  and  the  stewards  ( chambellans ).  The  last  are  in  the 
beginning  only  humble  servants,  but  they  keep  the  accounts 
of  the  house,  i.e.  of  the  Government.  They  perform  the 
functions  of  stewards.  In  this  double  capacity  as  head  of  the 
valets  de  chambre  and  Minister  of  Finance  the  chamberlain 
is  placed,  as  we  have  already  said,  under  the  orders  of  the 
Queen. 

The  grand  pantler  rules  over  the  pantry  ;  he  serves  at 
table  while  the  seneschal  carves  the  meat  and  the  butler  dis¬ 
penses  the  wine  ;  he  sees  to  the  cutting  of  the  bread.  He  is 
responsible  for  the  table  linen  and  sees  to  “  the  steeping  and 
washing  of  the  cloths.”  He  has  44  inspection  and  jurisdiction 
over  the  bread  made  by  the  bakers  of  Paris  and  the  suburbs.” 

Last  comes  the  grand  chancellor.  His  character  differs  a 
little  from  that  of  his  colleagues,  because,  though  domestic, 
his  origin  was  also  religious.  The  Merovingian  Kings  pre¬ 
served  among  their  relics  the  little  cope  ( capa )  of  Saint  Martin, 
the  under-garment  which  the  patron  of  the  Gauls  was  wearing 
the  day  he  gave  up  his  cloak  to  a  poor  man.  Thence  the  name 
44  chapel  ”  (chapelle)  given  to  the  place  where  the  relics  of 
the  Kings  were  kept,  and  that  of  44  chaplain  ”  ( chapelain )  by 
which  the  clerics  who  presided  over  it  were  described.  To 
the  relics  were  joined  the  archives.  The  aforesaid  chaplains 
registered  the  oaths  taken  on  the  cope,  which  led  them  at  times 
to  the  drawing  up  of  acts  and  patents  furnished  with  seals. 
Their  head  was  the  chancellor.  He  had  always  to  carry  the 
great  seal  hung  from  his  neck  for  fear  it  should  be  lost.  He 
is  called  44  the  one  who  carries  the  seal.”  He  is  over  the 
lawyers  who  draw  up  the  royal  letters  and  the  chafe-wax  who 
seals  them. 

Such  were  the  six  great  officers  of  the  Crown  ;  they  seconded 
the  King  in  the  exercise  of  his  power  ;  they  followed  him 
everywhere  ;  they  sanctioned  by  their  presence  the  publica¬ 
tion  of  the  acts  of  government.  Their  character,  so  narrowly 
domestic,  changes  in  time,  but  not  so  rapidly  as  one  might  be 
tempted  to  think.  In  the  fifteenth  century  still,  on  the  thres¬ 
hold  of  the  Renaissance,  Charles  VII  will  have  himself  served 
42 


FORMATION  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 


on  feast-days  by  the  great  officers,  each  in  conformity  to  his 
office,  and  during  the  repast  the  high  steward  will  read  aloud. 

These  domestics,  great  officers,  with  the  Queen  and  with 
the  King’s  sons,  with  his  relatives  and  the  great  nobles  of  the 
realm  forming  the  Council  of  the  King — and  with  the  other 
officers  of  diverse  conditions  who  form  the  establishment  of 
the  palace,  cooks,  chamber  attendants,  chaplains,  marshals — 
form  what  documents  of  the  period  term  the  44  royal  family.” 
Their  assemblage — to  which  comes  the  Queen,  the  princes, 
the  guests  and  the  relatives  of  the  King,  even  to  his  clerks 
and  his  valets  —  forms  the  household  ( domestique )  of  the 
sovereign,  what  we  should  call  to-day  the  Government. 

The  King  makes  his  military  expeditions  at  the  head  of 
his  44  family.” 

44  Family,”  44  mesnie,”  are  the  expressions  used  in  documents 
to  describe  the  troops  of  the  prince  on  campaign.  It  is  the 
manus  privata  of  the  King,  whose  importance  is  shown  from 
the  time  of  the  first  Capetians.  It  includes  his  nourris , 
those  who  dwell  near  him  for  the  sake  of  the  44  meat  ”  which  he 
distributes  to  them. 

In  battle  they  group  themselves  round  him. 

44  Charles  went  to  Roussillon  with  his  private  4  mesnie,’  ” 
we  read  in  Girart  de  Roussillon  ;  44  he  had  not  summoned  his 
host  and  yet  he  was  going  to  make  no  mean  progress.” 

This  royal  household,  like  that  which  has  been  already 
described,  tends  naturally,  by  the  development  of  its  internal 
force,  to  become  the  larger  household  ( mesnie  majeure).  From 
all  parts  of  the  kingdom  people  come  to  enter  it.  Below  the 
knights  ( équités )  and  the  squires  ( milites )  are  the  44  poursuiv¬ 
ants,”  young  men  who  aspire  to  chivalry  and  to  be  trained  in 
the  career  of  arms  ;  then  a  compact  troop  of  sergeants,  foot 
soldiers  ( pedites ),  servants  attached  to  the  household  of  the 
King.  In  place  of  helmets  the  sergeants  wear  on  their  heads 
hats  of  iron  or  leather  ;  they  do  not  use  weapons  deemed 
noble — the  sword  or  the  lance  ;  they  carry  in  their  hands 
a  two-edged  hatchet,  a  scythe,  or  a  spear,  or  a  heavy  club  with 
iron  spikes  ;  but  they  form,  none  the  less,  a  corps  d'élite ,  in 
which  are  found  the  best  archers,  the  ablest  bowmen  expert 
in  handling  ribaudequins  and  trebuchets,  swivel-guns  and 

43 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


mangonels.  He  gives  them  presents,  equipment  or  gifts  of 
money  :  to  one  the  use  of  a  shop,  or  the  takings  of  a  toll-house  ; 
to  another  a  mill,  an  oven,  some  acres  of  land.  Closely 
attached  to  the  prince,  they  are  his  personal  followers  {privés). 

As  for  the  resources  necessary  for  them,  the  first  Capetians 
drew  them  from  the  exploitation  of  their  own  domains.  They 
subscribed  to  their  needs  from  their  private  revenues,  without 
levying  taxes,  thanks  to  personal  rents,  the  sum  of  which  was 
brought  to  them  at  the  three  terms  of  St.  Remy,  Candlemas, 
and  the  Ascension.  They  were  made  up  of  numerous  rural 
exploitations  to  the  profits  of  which  the  monarchs  added  the 
feudal  dues  which  they  received  as  suzerains  of  their  fiefs. 

So  we  shall  not  be  astonished,  in  these  circumstances,  that 
the  first  Capetians  did  not  exercise  the  power  of  legislation. 
A  father  does  not  legislate  in  the  bosom  of  his  family.  The 
father’s  wish  is  law.  The  Merovingians  legislated,  as  also  did 
the  Carolingians,  for  their  authority  was  not  essentially  pa¬ 
ternal  ;  the  Capetians  no  longer  made  laws.  As  the  father 
among  his  children  so  the  King  is,  among  his  subjects,  the  living 
law.  He  governs  his  kingdom  as  a  family.  “  The  King’s 
wish  is  law.”  The  ordinances  of  the  King  and  of  his  Council, 
when  they  enter  into  the  manners  of  the  people,  become 
customary  ;  but  if  custom  does  not  admit  them,  they  have 
only  a  transitory  effect.  During  the  sway  of  the  Capetian 
dynasty,  in  the  whole  of  France  it  is  custom  which  makes  the 
law. 

Apart  from  his  personal  courage,  Hugh  Capet  had  owed  his 
election  to  the  authority  which  he  exercised  in  his  duchy,  in 
the  Ile  de  France  ;  he  had  owed  it  to  the  necessity  of  uniting 
the  great  barons,  the  Counts  of  Anjou,  of  Chartres,  of  Troyes, 
the  Duke  of  Normandy  ;  he  had  owed  it  to  his  family  con¬ 
nections  :  was  he  not  the  brother  of  Henry,  Duke  of  Bur¬ 
gundy,  the  brother-in-law  of  Richard,  Duke  of  Normandy, 
as  well  as  of  the  Duke  of  Aquitaine,  whose  sister,  “  Adelaide,” 
he  had  married  ?  Certainly  his  duchy,  of  which  Paris  was  the 
capital,  and  in  which  was  situated  the  town  of  Orleans,  had 
not  the  extent  of  territory  of  the  Duchy  of  Aquitaine,  the 
County  of  Toulouse,  the  Duchy  of  Burgundy,  or  the  Duchy  of 
Normandy  ;  but  its  situation  was  favoured  by  the  convergence 
44 


FORMATION  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 


of  navigable  watercourses  and  by  the  meeting  of  the  great 
roads  which  furrowed  the  north  of  Gaul.  The  Duke  of  France 
was  Abbot  of  St.  Martin  de  Tours,  of  St.  Denis,  of  St.  Germain- 
des-Prés,  of  St.  Maur-des-Fossés,  of  St.  Riquier,  of  St.  Aignan 
d’Orléans.  The  Archbishop  of  Reims,  the  bishops  of  Beauvais, 
of  Noyon,  of  Châlons,  of  Laon,  and  of  Langres  were  in  favour 
of  his  power.  He  was  suzerain  of  Poitou. 

On  the  3rd  July  987  Hugh  Capet  was  crowned  in  the 
Cathedral  of  Reims  by  Archbishop  Adalbéron.  At  the  moment 
of  his  consecration  he  pronounced  the  following  oath  : 

“  I,  Hugh,  who  in  an  instant  am  by  the  divine  favour 
about  to  become  King  of  the  French,  on  the  day  of  my  anoint¬ 
ing,  in  the  presence  of  God  and  of  His  saints,  promise  to  each 
of  you  to  preserve  to  you  the  canonical  privilege,  the  law,  the 
justice  which  are  due  to  you,  and  to  protect  you  as  far  as  I 
can  with  the  help  of  God  as  is  just  that  a  King  should  act  in 
his  realm  towards  each  bishop  and  the  Church  which  is  com¬ 
mitted  to  him.  I  promise  to  concede  from  our  authority  to 
the  people  confided  to  us  justice  according  to  their  rights.” 

Later,  Hugh  Capet  will  say  in  a  patent  to  the  Abbey  of 
Corbie  :  44  We  have  no  right  to  exist  unless  we  render  justice 
to  all  and  by  every  means.”  Moreover,  his  successors  will  have 
him  represented  on  their  seal  holding  the  hand  of  justice, 
which  is  to  remain  the  emblem  of  our  Kings  until  the  end  of 
the  monarchy.  In  official  representations,  the  King  of  France 
holds  the  sceptre  in  one  hand,  the  hand  of  justice  in  the  other  ; 
other  Kings  have  themselves  shown  holding  the  sceptre  and 
the  sword. 

In  this  tenth  century  Abbo  attempts  to  define  the  royal 
person  :  44  It  is,”  he  says,  44  the  incarnation  of  justice.”  He 
declares  that  the  office  of  King  consists  44  in  stirring  up  the 
affairs  of  the  kingdom  for  fear  some  dispute  should  remain 
hidden  there.”  Fulbert  de  Chartres,  in  the  eleventh  century, 
says  also  :  44  The  King  is  the  pinnacle  of  justice  :  summum 
justicie  caput .”  It  is  the  essential  character  marking  the 
prince  in  all  the  chansons  de  geste.  And  what  is  the  nature,  the 
source  of  this  justice  ?  Old  Bodin  will  tell  us  :  44  The  King 
treats  his  subjects  and  distributes  justice  to  them,  as  a  father 
to  his  children.” 


4  5 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


In  the  midst  of  his  subjects  the  King  was  truly  the  source 
of  justice  ;  all  justice  emanated  from  him.  Above  the  numerous 
local  groups,  families,  lordships,  towns,  and  communities  which 
divided  the  kingdom,  the  monarch  was  the  sole  common 
authority  and  therefore  able  to  intervene  in  the  differences 
which  arose  among  them.  As  each  of  these  groups  lived  and 
administered  itself  independently,  the  only  function  which  re¬ 
mained  to  the  King  was  to  force  them  to  agree  for  the  common 
good.  44  As  soon  as  the  King  is  crowned,”  notes  Abbo  (tenth 
century),  44  he  demands  from  his  subjects  the  oath  of  fidelity 
lest  discord  should  arise  in  any  part  of  the  kingdom.”  Bodin 
wrote  :  44  The  prince  should  make  his  subjects  agree  with  one 
another  and  all  with  him,”  resuming  in  two  lines  the  history 
of  the  kingly  function. 

Hugh  had  owed  his  throne  to  election.  The  representa¬ 
tives  of  the  Carolingian  dynasty  had  still  some  partisans.  He 
therefore  took  the  precaution,  the  very  year  of  his  accession  to 
the  throne,  of  having  his  son  Robert  crowned  in  the  Cathedral 
of  Orleans  (the  25th  December  987).  44  He  showed  a  letter 

sent  by  Borel,  Duke  of  Hither  Spain,”  writes  Richer,  44  in  which 
the  Duke  demanded  help  against  the  Barbarians  (the  Saracens). 
He  asked  that  a  second  King  should  be  created,  so  that  if  one 
of  the  two  should  perish  in  battle,  the  army  could  always 
count  on  a  leader.  He  said,  too,  that  if  the  King  were  killed 
and  the  country  ravaged,  the  nobles  might  be  divided  among 
themselves,  the  wicked  oppress  the  good,  and  the  nation  in 
consequence  fall  into  servitude.” 

Lines  which  give  us  a  glimpse  of  those  Saracens  of  Spain 
against  whom  from  that  time  the  Christian  knights  are  destined 
to  struggle  desperately  :  and  here  is  the  theme  of  the  chansons 
de  geste. 

The  rule  of  the  early  Capetians  consisted,  besides,  in  the 
moral  direction  they  gave  to  the  country.  The  existence  of 
the  King  was  necessary  at  the  top  of  feudal  society,  and  it  was 
by  this  very  existence  that  he  governed.  Moreover,  we  ought 
not  to  be  surprised  at  the  small  number  of  Acts  preserved  under 
the  name  of  Hugh  Capet  :  a  dozen  during  a  reign  of  ten  years. 
Contrary  to  what  has  been  said,  this  is  no  proof  of  impotence. 
The  very  great  moral  authority  which  the  Crown  already  en- 
46 


FORMATION  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 


joyed  under  the  first  Capetian  had  no  need  to  manifest  itself 
in  documents.  Entangled  as  we  are  to-day  in  our  admini¬ 
strative  bureaucracy,  we  no  longer  imagine  public  action  except 
in  the  form  of  paper.  The  German  Emperor,  Otto  II,  a  con¬ 
temporary  of  Hugh  Capet,  issued  more  than  400  Acts  ;  he  was 
still  a  child  ;  but  the  reason  was  that  the  German  Govern¬ 
ment  acted  then  more  by  administration.  France,  say  the 
historians,  paid  attention  to  nothing  but  the  dozen  counts 
and  dukes  who  really  governed  them.  This  again  is  not 
correct.  Each  of  these  twelve  counts  and  dukes  was  at  the 
head  of  a  certain  number  of  vassals  over  whom  he  had  a  power 
of  conciliation  and  paternal  protection  similar  to  that  which 
the  King  exercised  over  him  and  his  peers  ;  and  these  vassals, 
in  their  turn,  were  over  other  vassals  (of  an  inferior  status) 
and  in  identical  conditions. 

No  writer  has  given  us  a  picture  of  Hugh  Capet.  From 
the  moral  point  of  view  he  seems  to  have  been  the  man  of  his 
part,  conciliatory,  clever  in  negotiation,  persuasive.  Of  simple 
manners,  with  no  taste  for  pomp  or  show,  he  helped  to  give  to 
the  French  monarchy  the  popular  aspect  which  is  to  distinguish 
it  from  foreign  monarchies.  “  With  the  Kings  of  France,” 
writes  Guibert  de  Nogent,  “one  finds  a  natural  simplicity  ; 
they  realize  the  words  of  Scripture  :  4  Princes,  be  among  your 
subjects  as  of  them.’  ” 

Hugh  Capet  died  on  the  26th  October  996,  of  small-pox. 
He  was  buried  at  St.  Denis.  His  death  had  been  as  edifying 
as  his  life  :  for  Hugh  Capet  appeared  already  as  a  prince  of 
ecclesiastical  character,  head  of  his  clergy  :  he  busies  himself 
with  the  care  of  the  monasteries  of  which  he  is  abbot  ;  he  fills 
the  bishoprics  of  Amiens,  Beauvais,  Châlons,  Laon,  Noyon, 
Reims,  Senlis,  Soissons,  Auxerre,  Chartres,  Meaux,  Langres, 
Bourges,  and  Puy,  presides  at  councils,  draws  up  rules  for 
monasteries.  He  dresses  himself  in  Church  vestments  {drap 
d’Eglise)  and  takes  part  barefooted  in  processions,  carrying 
the  reliquary  of  St.  Valois.  The  first  Capetians  blessed  their 
subjects  and  gave  them  absolution  : 

With  his  right  hand  he  absolves  and  blesses  them. 

{Chanson  de  Roland,  v.  340.) 

And  indeed,  says  André  Duchesne,  “  the  Kings  of  France 

47 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


have  never  been  mere  laymen,  but  have  the  priesthood  and 
royalty  united.  To  show  that  they  share  in  the  priesthood 
they  are  anointed  exactly  like  priests  (the  anointing  with  holy 
oils  at  their  consecration),  and  they  still  use  the  dalmatic  under 
the  royal  robes  to  show  the  rank  they  hold  in  the  Church.” 

Sources. — Richeri  Histories ,  libri  IV,  ed.  Waitz,  Scriptores  rerum 
germanicarum  in  usum  scholarum,  1877  ;  Gerbert,  Lettres,  983-987,  ed. 
J.  Havet,  1889  ;  the  Chansons  de  geste ,  quoted  in  the  preceding  and 
following  chapters. 

Historical  Works. — Montlosier,  De  la  monarchie  française  depuis 
son  établissement,  1814,  3  vols.  ;  Fustel  de  Coulanges,  Les  Transformations 
de  la  royauté  pendant  V époque  carolingienne,  1892  ;  Jacq.  Flach,  Les 
Origines  de  l'ancienne  France ,  1886-1917,  4  vols.  ;  Achille  Luchaire, 
Histoire  des  institutions  monarchiques  .  .  .  sous  les  premiers  Capétiens, 
1886,  2  vols.  ;  Esmien,  Cours  élémentaire  de  l'histoire  du  droit  français , 
3rd  ed.,  1898  ;  André  Lemaire,  Les  Lois  fondamentales  de  la  monarchie 
française,  1907  ;  Aug.  Euler,  Das  Kônigthum  im  ait  franzôsichen  Karls - 
Epos,  Marburg,  1886  ;  F.  Lot,  Les  Derniers  Carolingiens,  1891  ;  by  the 
same  author,  Etudes  sur  le  règne  de  Hugue  Capet,  1903  ;  E.  Favre,  Eude, 
Comte  de  Paris  et  roi  de  France,  1893  ;  L.  Halphen,  Le  Comte  d'Anjou  au 
XIe  Siècle ,  1906. 


48 


CHAPTER  III 


THE  EPICS 

The  origin  of  the  chansons  de  geste  is  well  known.  The  first 
troubadours  are  soldiers  who  celebrate  the  high  deeds  of  the 
family  to  which  they  belong.  After  them,  the  chanson  de  geste 
reaches  the  minstrels.  “  Geste  ”  means  “  family.”  Our  oldest 
epics  :  The  Chanson  de  Roland  (Songs  of  Roland),  The  Chanson  de 
Guillaume  (Song  of  William),  le  Pèlerinage  de  Charlemagne  (The 
Pilgrimage  of  Charlemagne),  Garin  le  Loherain  A  great  epic 
poet  :  Bertrand  de  Barbe-sur- Aube.  Connection  between  the 
chansons  de  geste  and  the  Homeric  poems. 

FEUDAL  France  is  built  up  from  the  family. 

To  the  family,  which  affords  safety  and  shelter, 
which  contains  the  seeds  of  future  destiny  and  which 
has  progressively  formed  public  life,  men  devote  themselves 
unreservedly.  The  greatest  efforts  are  put  forth  to  develop 
its  power  and  its  prosperity.  From  the  cult  of  hearth  and 
ancestor,  from  that  of  domestic  honour,  the  man  of  that  time 
draws  the  courage  which  is  to  make  of  him  a  stout  fellow 
(prud'homme),  a  valiant  knight  worthy  of  the  name  he  bears, 
of  the  standard  under  which  he  fights,  of  the  watchword  (cri) 
which  guides  him. 

In  that  period  of  faith  and  action  which  begins  at  the  end 
of  the  tenth  century  and  includes  the  whole  of  the  eleventh — 
in  which  historians  have  seen  the  greatest  century  in  our  history, 
“  the  most  creative  age  of  all  ” — the  sentiments  which  we 
have  just  recalled  find  sublime  expression. 

According  to  a  theory  which  was  favoured  for  a  long  time, 
our  old  epic  poems,  the  chansons  de  geste ,  had  their  origin  in 
little  sentimental  melodies  ( cantilènes ),  short  songs,  little  poems 
familiar  to  the  soldiers  and  the  people.  Originating  in  the 
time  of  Merovée  and  Clovis,  they  were  supposed  to  have  increased 
greatly  in  number  under  the  Carolingians.  In  these  warlike 
songs  the  glory  of  the  great  princes,  Clovis,  Dagobert,  Charle- 

d  49 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


magne — above  all,  Charlemagne — were  celebrated — and  that 
of  the  most  valiant  knights,  Roland  de  Bretagne,  Raoul  de 
Cambrai,  Guillaume  d’Orange,  Girard  de  Roussillon.  The 
various  chansons  de  geste  were  supposed  to  have  been  each 
formed  by  the  stringing  together  and  development  of  several 
little  songs. 

It  is  a  theory  which  the  splendid  work  of  M.  Joseph  Bédier 
has  definitely  condemned. 

The  French  epic  poems,  the  chansons  de  geste ,  were  the 
spontaneous  expression  of  the  heroic  sentiments  which  were 
handed  down  in  the  bosom  of  the  great  families  in  which  under 
the  same  baron  were  grouped  many  households  ( mesnies ). 

The  chanson  de  geste  is  the  song  of  the  family  (lignage), 
composed  to  glorify  the  ancestors.  It  is  born  at  the  fireside, 
of  old  traditions,  listened  to  with  an  eager  attention  in  the 
solitude  of  the  barred  castles,  in  the  evening  round  the  hearth 
with  the  dancing  flames  lighting  up  the  lofty  vaults  of  stone  ; 
gatherings  which  Suger  describes  in  his  chronicle. 

The  sentiments  which  animate  poet  and  hearers  are  ex¬ 
clusively  feudal.  Whither  fly  the  last  thoughts  of  Roland 
expiring  at  Roncevaux  on  the  grey  rock  ?  To  the  lands  he  has 
conquered,  to  his  sweet  country  of  France,  to  the  men  of  his 
lineage  and  the  seigneur  who  brought  him  up  :  such  is  the 
very  soul  of  the  chansons  de  geste. 

The  first  epic  poets  were  members  or  vassals  of  the  family 
which  they  sang,  taking  the  word  44  family  ”  both  in  its  exact 
sense  and  the  larger  significance  which  the  fief  and  the  house¬ 
hold  lent  it  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

Raoul  de  Cambrai  has  a  companion,  Bertolais  de  Laon,  a 
valiant  warrior,  able  to  make  poems  on  the  combats  in  which 
he  has  taken  part  : 

Bertolais  said  that  a  song  he  would  make, 

Such  as  minstrel  never  sang. 

Very  brave  and  wise  was  Bertolais, 

In  Laon  was  he  born  and  cherished, 

Of  a  fine  and  splendid  line  he  came  : 

He  witnesses  all  the  high  deeds  of  the  fight 
And  makes  a  song  ;  a  better  you  shall  never  hear  ; 

It  has  been  sung  since  in  many  a  palace.  .  .  . 

( Raoul  de  Cambrai ,  v.  2442.) 


50 


THE  EPICS 


It  is  just  the  same  in  the  Chanson  de  Guillaume  : 

William  my  lord  has  a  minstrel, 

In  all  France  none  sings  so  well, 

Nor  in  battle  fights  more  bravely  ; 

He  can  sing  to  him  the  chansons  de  geste.  .  .  . 

(v.  1260.) 

Such  were,  in  France,  the  first  trouvères ,  the  first  epic 
poets  ;  then  they  gave  place  to  professional  poets  attached 
to  the  seigniorial  families,  who  remunerated  them.  This 
was  notably  the  case  with  one  of  the  most  famous  of  them, 
Bertrand  de  Bar,  who  lived,  about  the  middle  of  the  twelfth 
century,  at  Bar-sur-Aube,  in  the  household  of  a  powerful  baron, 
Gui  de  Hanstone.  His  seigneur  had  brought  him  up  and 
made  a  “  rich  man  ”  of  him,  in  return  for  which  Bertrand 
composed  for  him  a  chanson  de  geste  in  which  was  celebrated 
his  ancestor  Beuve  de  Hanstone.  But  these  epics  were  soon 
to  emerge  from  the  sphere  of  the  household,  to  be  sung  by  the 
warriors  who  rode  along  the  dusty  roads,  as  is  recounted  in 
Renaud  de  Montauban,  singing,  helmet  on  head  with  flags  flying, 
moved  by  the  march  and  the  wind  of  the  plain.  Their  verses 
rang  out  in  the  midst  of  battle.  The  passage  of  Wace  showing 
us  Taillefer  at  the  opening  of  the  battle  of  Hastings  (1066), 
singing  of  Charlemagne  and  Roland,  has  remained  famous 
through  it  : 

Taillefer,  who  could  sing  well, 

On  a  quick -going  horse 
Went  before  the  Duke,  singing 
Of  Charlemagne  and  Roland, 

Of  Oliver  and  his  men 
Who  died  at  Ronce  vaux. 

When  they  had  so  far  ridden 
That  to  the  English  they  drew  near  : 

“  Sire,”  cries  Taillefer,  “  your  mercy, 

Long  have  I  served  you, 

You  owe  me  reward  for  my  service  ; 

To-day,  if  it  please  you,  pay  me. 

By  whatever  reward  I  ask, 

And  if  you  will,  now  I  ask  : 

Grant  me,  that  I  may  not  miss 
The  first  stroke  in  the  fight.” 

The  Duke  replied  :  “  I  grant  it  thee.” 


51 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


But  the  long  themes  of  the  epics,  in  their  melodious  mono¬ 
tony,  were  unfolded  above  all  under  the  sonorous  vaults  of 
the  keep,  in  the  evening  by  the  glancing  light  of  the  torches, 
or  in  the  garden,  in  presence  of  the  knights  seated  on  the 
grass  by  a  clear  fountain,  in  the  shade  of  a  pine  or  almond 
tree  ;  they  were  heard  on  feast-days  when  the  lord  held  his 
Court. 

| For  the  chansons  de  geste  have  been  collected  by  profes¬ 
sional  singers  who  hawk  them  from  castle  to  castle,  from  fair 
to  fair,  and  from  one  town  to  another.  And  through  specializa¬ 
tion  a  division  of  the  profession  is  effected.  A  separation 
comes  about  between  the  poets  who  compose  the  poem 
and  the  minstrels  who  spread  it  abroad  {par  les  amples 
régnés). 

The  chansons  de  geste  are  poems  of  the  family,  and  their 
name  alone  would  be  sufficient  to  emphasize  the  fact.  44  Geste  ” 
means  44  family,”  and  especially  so  in  the  expression  “  chanson 
de  geste  ”  by  which  the  epics  are  described. 

Count  William  with  the  Crooked  Nose — Guillaume  d’Orange, 
thus  called  because  of  the  shape  imparted  to  his  nose  by  the 
stroke  of  a  Saracen  sword — loves  his  brave  minstrel  : 

He  is  skilled  to  sing  the  epic  praises  of  his  line.  .  .  . 

(v.  1263.) 

singing  of  Clovis,  of  Charlemagne,  of  Roland,  of  Girard  de 
Vienne,  and  knightly  Oliver. 

His  kindred  they  were  and  his  ancestors. 

(v.  1272.) 

If  Guillaume  d’Orange  loves  to  hear  in  his  hall,  paved  with 
marble,  the  poems  which  sing  of  Clovis  and  Charlemagne, 
Oliver,  Girard,  and  Roland,  it  is  because  their  blood  flows  in 
his  veins. 

Moreover,  the  44  heroes  ”  of  the  chansons  de  geste  are — much 
more  than  the  individuals  who  figure  so  brilliantly  in  them — 
the  families  to  which  these  individuals  belonged,  the  44  proud 
lineage  ”  raised  higher  still. 

Garin  le  Loherain  is  the  bloody  history  of  the  long  feud  which 
divided  two  families,  and  the  epic  ends  only  after  the  slaughter 
of  the  last  descendant  of  Hardré. 

52 


THE  EPICS 


The  family  ( lignage )  for  which  the  troubadour  wrote  has  all 
the  virtues,  above  all  those  of  the  warrior  : 

Valiant  was  my  father  and  my  ancestry, 

And  of  a  fine  family  am  I  come, 

And  therefore  valiant  should  I  be. 

( Gormont  et  Isembart,  v.  218.) 

The  enemy  house  has  all  the  vices  : 

The  whole  company  goes  with  Tiedbalt  fleeing, 

And  Vivien  the  valiant  remains. 

( Chanson  de  Guillaume ,  v.  332.) 

After  having  separated  it  from  an  infinite  variety  of  detail 
and  a  wealth  of  development,  you  will  find  in  these  words  the 
plot  of  the  greater  number  of  the  chansons  de  geste.  “  Fromont 
and  all  his  people  are  felons,”  says  Garin. 

So  much  they  achieved  that  all  loved  them 

Except  the  perfidious  stock  which  always  abused  them. 

(Chanson  des  quatre  fils  Ay  mon,  v.  16763.) 

Ganelon  does  not  stand  alone  as  a  traitor  ;  his  whole 
“  kindred  ”  is  wicked  ;  all  his  descendants  are  felons,  and  it 
could  not  be  otherwise  while  a  drop  of  his  blood  should  flow 
in  the  veins  of  one  of  his  descendants,  even  if  he  were  to  belong 
to  the  remotest  generation.  The  eleventh  century  would 
never  have  admitted  the  theme  of  the  Fille  de  Roland ,  which 
makes  a  gallant  knight  of  the  son  of  Ganelon.  When  Renaud 
de  Montauban  learns  that  his  brother-in-law  has  betrayed 
him,  he  wants  to  kill  his  own  children  :  what  could  they 
become,  they  who,  through  their  mother,  belong  to  the  family 
of  a  traitor  ? 

The  chansons  de  geste,  which  have  come  down  to  us  to  the 
number  of  a  hundred,  can  be  divided  into  several  cycles,  each 
of  which  is  a  family  cycle  :  we  have  thus  the  cycle  of  the  Aimer- 
ides  (from  the  name  of  Aimeri  de  Narbonne),  as  the  Greeks  had 
the  cycle  of  the  Atrides  ;  and  in  it  Narbonne  takes  the  place 
of  Mycenæ. 

The  cycle  of  the  Aimerides,  alone,  includes  twenty-four  of 
our  chansons  de  geste,  which  are  divided  as  follows  :  the  geste 
of  Garin  de  Montglane,  the  ancestor,  three  chansons  ;  the 
geste  of  Aimeri,  the  father  of  Guillaume,  in  which  is  found 
the  chef  d'œuvre  of  Bertrand  de  Bar,  Girard  de  Vienne,  eight 

53 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


chansons  ;  finally,  the  geste  of  Guillaume, — which  begins  with 
the  old  and  admirable  Chanson  de  Guillaume  and  finishes  with 
his  profession  as  monk  when  William  of  the  Crooked  Nose 
becomes  a  monk  in  the  Abbey  of  Gellone, — thirteen  chansons. 
And  what  is  this  long  and  magnificent  story  sung  in  enthusi¬ 
astic  and  confident  verse — the  history  of  old  Aimeri,  of  his 
sons,  grandsons,  and  great-nephews,  devoting  themselves  from 
generation  to  generation  to  the  defence  of  Christianity  against 
the  Saracens  to  sustain  their  valour  and  the  rights  of  their 
King  whatever  might  be  his  ingratitude  and  injustices — if 
not  the  tale,  multiple  and  complex  in  its  windings,  however 
simple  and  united  its  fundamental  idea,  the  tale  of  the  efforts 
made  by  a  family  of  heroes  to  exalt  their  name. 

The  elements  of  the  chansons  de  geste  are  then  co-ordinated 
at  this  end  of  the  tenth  century,  which  shows  us  feudal  France 
definitely  organizing  itself  by  taking  a  Capetian  as  its  head. 
During  the  eleventh,  the  heroic,  century,  the  epics  will  take  their 
most  powerful  form  and  spread  abroad.  The  oldest  manu¬ 
scripts  preserved  of  our  chansons  de  geste ,  like  that  of  the  Song 
of  Roland,  were  written  in  the  second  half  of  the  twelfth  century 
— versions  of  older  chansons,  for  none  of  these  poems  have  reached 
us  in  their  original  form. 

It  is  written  in  the  ancient  geste, 

we  read  in  the  Chanson  de  Roland  (verse  3742). 

The  three  oldest  French  epics  the  text  of  which  we  possess 
are  the  Chanson  de  Roland,  the  Chanson  de  Guillaume,  and  that 
queer,  amusing  product,  disconcerting  for  the  period  in  which 
it  was  composed,  the  Pèlerinage  de  Charlemagne. 

The  idea  which  dominates  all  these  poems  is  the  struggle 
of  Christian  Europe,  under  the  hegemony  of  France,  against 
the  Saracens  ;  to  which  three  main  facts  have  contributed.  In 
the  first  place,  there  was  the  memory  left  of  the  Saracen 
invasions  of  the  south-east  of  France  in  the  ninth  century  ;  in 
the  second  place,  the  struggles  maintained  from  the  middle  of 
the  tenth  century  and  throughout  the  course  of  the  eleventh, 
against  the  Saracens  of  Spain,  in  which  a  great  number  of 
French  barons  took  part  ;  in  the  third  place,  there  were  the 
Crusades. 

54 


THE  EPICS 


The  oldest  and  most  beautiful  of  our  epic  poems,  the  Chanson 
de  Roland ,  probably  goes  back  in  its  first  form  to  the  end  of 
the  tenth  century.  The  extant  version  dates  from  the  follow¬ 
ing  century.  In  its  first  form  entirely  lost,  it  must  have  been 
simpler,  rougher,  more  rugged,  and  certainly  more  beautiful 
still. 

The  poem  has  its  foundation  in  a  historic  fact.  In  778,  on 
his  return  from  Spain,  Charlemagne  crossed  the  Pyrenees  with 
his  army.  On  the  15th  August  his  rearguard  was  destroyed 
by  Basque  mountaineers  in  the  valley  of  Roncevaux.  It  was 
commanded  by  Roland,  the  Prefect  of  the  Marches  of  Brittany. 
It  was  an  episode  of  secondary  importance,  the  story  of  which, 
woven  with  heroic  legends  and  resumed  by  a  poet  of  genius, 
expressed  with  incomparable  force  and  nobility  the  sentiments 
of  the  French  of  the  period.  This  song  of  the  eleventh  century 
is  one  of  the  finest  works,  and  without  doubt  the  grandest  by 
reason  of  the  breadth  and  nobility  of  its  sentiments,  in  all 
literature. 

The  legend  makes  of  Roland  a  nephew  of  Charlemagne,  and 
his  defeat  was  attributed  to  the  treason  of  a  certain  Count 
Ganelon,  who  was  to  become,  for  the  troubadours  of  the  twelfth 
century,  the  type  of  the  traitor,  as  Roland  was  to  become  the 
model  of  courage  and  loyalty. 

The  energy  of  the  affections  and  the  rugged  simplicity  of 
the  ideas  gives  to  the  narrative  a  potency  which  will  never  be 
repeated.  The  descriptions  of  the  heroes  is  made  by  a  single 
characteristic,  as  in  Homer  :  Roland  of  the  fine  limbs,  Charles 
with  the  grey  beard  ;  the  description  of  a  countryside  is  con¬ 
tained  in  two  lines  : 

High  are  the  mountains  and  the  valleys  dark, 

The  rocks  dark  grey,  the  defiles  wonderful. 

(v.  814.) 

By  the  sublimity  and  power  of  its  sentiment,  by  the  robust 
emotion  which  dominates  the  poem,  the  Chanson  de  Roland 
takes  place  above  all  which  has  ever  been  written.  Its  form 
even  is  of  the  greatest  beauty,  and  if  it  is  true  that  the  art  of 
the  writer  consists  in  giving  to  the  words  he  uses  the  maximum 
of  their  effect  by  the  manner  in  which  he  employs  them,  the 

55 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Chanson  de  Roland  is,  from  the  point  of  view  of  style  also,  the 
chef  d'œuvre  of  our  literature. 

In  what  district  was  the  Chanson  de  Roland  written  ? 
Brittany  has  been  suggested,  because  Roland  was  its  prefect  ; 
then  Normandy,  because  of  the  devotion  which  the  author 
of  the  poem  professes  for  St.  Michael  of  the  Perils  of  the  Sea 
(St.  Michel-au-peril-de-la-mer).  It  seems  clear  to  us  that  the 
poem  had  its  origin  in  the  Ile-de-France.  It  is  in  the  Ile-de- 
France  that  the  feudal  forms,  which  other  districts  adopted 
later,  have  their  origin  ;  the  Ile-de-France  was  the  cradle  of 
the  power  of  the  Capetians,  and,  as  we  shall  see,  of  Gothic 
architecture  ;  and  there  the  most  ancient  epics  took  their  rise, 
and  notably  the  Chanson  de  Roland. 

When  Charles,  to  avenge  Roland,  leads  back  his  army 
against  the  Saracens,  he  forms  the  first  two  echelons  of  French¬ 
men,  by  which  is  meant  knights  of  the  Ile-de-France  ;  the  third 
echelon  is  composed  of  the  Bavarians,  whom  Charles  loves 
beyond  all  others  except,  of  course,  the  French,  who  have 
conquered  for  him  the  other  nations  ; — the  fourth  echelon  is 
formed  of  Germans,  the  fifth  of  Normans,  the  sixth  of  Bretons, 
of  Poitevins,  and  men  of  Auvergne,  the  eighth  of  Flemings, 
the  ninth  of  Lorrainers  and  Burgundians  ;  finally,  the  last 
echelon  includes  once  more  barons  of  France.  The  French  of 
the  Ile-de-France  form  the  van  and  rear  of  the  army.  While 
the  other  corps  are  placed  under  divers  heads,  the  French 
are  commanded  by  Charlemagne,  and  the  oriflamme  floats 
in  their  ranks.  Charles  loves  them  above  all  others,  for  it  is 
they  who  have  subjected  all  Europe  to  him  ;  it  was  for  them 
that  the  poet  wrote. 

And  what  is  the  name  of  this  poet  to  whom  we  owe  the 
finest  work  in  our  language  ?  The  chanson  ends  thus  : 

Here  ends  the  geste  which  Turold  relates  ( declinet ). 

(v.  4002.) 

The  sense  which  should  be  attributed  here  to  the  word 
44  décliner  ”  is  uncertain.  Is  it  a  question  of  the  poet,  that 
is  to  say,  the  author  of  the  poem,  or  of  the  minstrel  who 
chanted  the  geste ,  or  the  copyist  who  transcribed  it  ?  And, 
first  of  all,  one  must  reject  the  idea  of  a  copyist  who  would 
have  had  the  audacity  to  bring  himself  thus  under  the  eyes 
56 


THE  EPICS 


of  the  reader.  On  the  other  hand,  in  several  chansons  de  geste, 
one  sees  the  poet  disclosing  himself  exactly  in  this  same  place. 
And  that  seems  to  be  a  strong  reason  for  believing  that  Turold 
was  the  author,  either  of  the  first  version,  or  more  probably 
of  the  revision  which  gave  to  the  Chanson  de  Roland  the  form 
in  which  it  has  come  down  to  us. 

Rather  later  than  the  Chanson  de  Roland ,  the  Chanson  de 
Guillaume  belongs  to  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century.  It  is 
the  history  of  the  defeat  inflicted  by  the  Saracens  on  William 
of  the  Crooked  Nose  in  the  plain  of  Larchamp-sur-mer  (a  place 
name  which  has  proved  impossible  to  identify),  and  of  the 
vengeance  taken  by  the  noble  count  with  the  help  of  the  King 
of  France.  Its  composition  is  already  different  enough  from 
that  of  the  Chanson  de  Roland  ;  it  has  less  breadth,  its  move¬ 
ment  is  less  simple  ;  it  is  not  so  sublime  ;  but  the  characters 
shown  are  depicted  with  an  incomparable  relief  in  their  rude 
energy. 

A  portrait  of  a  woman,  that  of  Guibourc,  the  wife  of  William 
of  the  Crooked  Nose,  takes  here  the  most  important  place, 
while  in  the  Chanson  de  Roland  the  feminine  rôle  is  absent. 
It  is  an  admirable  picture  of  the  feudal  châtelaine  who  cherishes 
( nourrit )  her  lord’s  men,  rules  over  the  castle  when  the  baron 
is  away,  and  heartens  him  when  he  returns  vanquished  without 
a  single  one  of  his  company.  The  scenes  of  the  Chanson  de 
Guillaume  have  been  many  times  repeated  in  the  family  cycle. 

Guillaume  appears  on  the  walls  of  Orange  after  the  disaster 
of  Larchamp.  At  first  Guibourc  refuses  to  recognize  her 
baron  in  the  lamentable  state  in  which  he  presents  himself. 
At  last  she  orders  the  gates  of  the  castle  to  be  opened  to  him. 

Count  William  at  the  threshold  dismounts. 

The  lady  Guibourc  takes  his  charger, 

And  leads  him  straight  to  stall  ; 

Saddle  and  bridle  she  takes  away 
And  gives  him  oats  to  eat. 

Then  goes  to  embrace  the  Count  ; 

And  courteously  demands  : 

“  Sire,”  she  asks,  “  what  have  you  done  with  your  men, 

Whom  you  led  off,  four  thousand  and  seven  hundred  ?  ” 

“  By  my  faith,  lady,  the  pagans  vanquished  them  ; 

Bloody  they  lie  on  the  field  of  Larchamp.” 


57 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


“  Sire,”  cries  she,  “  what  have  you  done  with  Vivien  ?  ” 

“  By  my  faith,  lady,  bloody  and  dead  he  lies.” 

When  Guibourc  hears  this,  her  heart  grows  very  sad. 

“  Sire,”  she  says,  “  what  have  you  done  with  Bertram  ? 

The  young  Bernard  of  Brusban  town  ?  ” 

“  Sister,  sweet  friend,  much  fighting  he  did 
In  fifteen  attacks.  He  fell  on  the  field.” 

(La  Chanson  de  Guillaume ,  v.  2328.) 

And  Guillaume  recounts  the  death  of  Bernard  ;  Guibourc 
continues  her  tragic  questioning  :  44  What  have  you  done  with 
Guiot  ? — with  Gautier  ? — with  Guielin  ? — with  Renier  ?  ” — 
They  are  dead,  all  dead,  and  Guibourc,  for  all  response,  with  a 
gesture  of  poignant  simplicity  : 

Wash  your  hands,  lord,  and  come  and  eat  ! 

And  the  next  day,  persuaded  by  his  wife,  Guillaume  sets 
out  for  Laon,  where  he  gets  reinforcements  from  the  King, 
and  at  their  head  he  conquers  the  Saracens. 

The  Pèlerinage  de  Charlemagne  is  the  shortest  of  our  chansons 
de  geste.  It  has  a  special  character  by  reason  of  the  predomin¬ 
ance  of  the  comic  element  ;  one  might  call  it  a  fable.  Charle¬ 
magne,  piqued  by  the  idle  talk  of  his  wife,  who  has  made  in 
his  presence  a  thoughtless  eulogy  of  Hugo  the  Strong,  the 
Emperor  of  Constantinople,  has  sworn  to  go  and  confirm  with 
his  own  eyes  the  truth  of  the  story.  He  goes  as  far  as  Jerusalem, 
whence  he  brings  back  the  most  precious  relics,  the  crown  of 
thorns,  the  chalice  of  the  Last  Supper,  a  nail  of  the  true  cross, 
some  milk  of  the  Virgin.  .  .  .  On  the  return  journey,  in  the 
palace  of  Hugo  the  Strong,  at  Constantinople,  take  place  the 
lively  scenes  to  which  we  have  alluded. 

Garin  le  Loherain,  in  the  version  we  possess,  dates  from 
the  last  third  of  the  twelfth  century.  This  version,  later  than 
that  of  the  preceding  works,  is  by  two  authors.  The  name  of 
the  second,  Jean  de  Flagy,  is  known.  The  point  which  is  its 
greatest  interest  is  that  the  editors  of  the  twelfth  century 
respected,  under  a  more  modern  form,  the  facts,  ideas,  and 
sentiments  of  the  earlier  period,  which  takes  us  back  to  rough 
and  brutal  customs. 

It  is  the  story  of  the  great  war  between  the  men  of  Lorraine 
and  those  of  Bordeaux.  It  has  its  origin  in  a  quarrel  between 
Hervis  de  Metz  and  Hardré  de  Bordeaux,  who  has  become 
58 


THE  EPICS 


Count  of  Artois.  It  continues  between  the  children  of  Hervis 
and  those  of  Hardré,  between  Garin  de  Metz  (le  Loherain)  and 
Begon  de  Belin.  The  third,  the  fourth,  the  fifth  generations 
pursue  the  ferocious  struggle,  down  to  the  extermination  of 
the  posterity  of  Hardré. 

Manners  and  language  are  equally  savage  :  “  With  all  his 
remaining  strength,  Begon  strikes  Isoré,  splits  his  helmet,  cuts 
through  the  cap,  and  reaches  the  skull  and  cleaves  it  to  the 
hauberk.  Isoré  fell  this  time  never  to  rise  again  ;  he  was 
dead.  Then  Begon,  intoxicated  with  blood,  plunges  Froberge 
into  the  inanimate  body  and,  like  a  famished  wolf  on  a  dead 
sheep,  he  tears  the  entrails  from  it,  carries  them  off,  and  advanc¬ 
ing  to  the  room  in  which  lie  the  hostages,  throws  them  into  the 
face  of  Guillaume  de  Montclin  : 

44  4  Here,  vassal,’  says  he,  4  take  the  heart  of  your  friend  ; 
you  can  salt  and  roast  it  !  And  remember  !  Garin  has  never 
been  perjured  !  Garin  has  never  betrayed  the  King  !  ’  ” 

As  we  have  said,  a  hundred  chansons  de  geste  have  been 
preserved,  and  this  enormous  figure  represents  only  a  small 
part  of  the  epic  production  from  the  tenth  to  the  thirteenth 
century  ;  for  the  French,  “  who  have  not  the  epic  sense,” 
have  produced — and  it  is  only  a  question  of  the  French  of  the 
langue  d’oïl — eight  or  ten  times  as  many  true  epics  as  all  the 
other  peoples  of  Europe  together. 

We  have  mentioned  the  most  ancient  of  these  poems.  It 
would  be  impossible  to  continue  this  enumeration  ;  but  we 
ought  to  mention  the  chefs  d'œuvre  of  Bertrand  de  Bar-sur- 
Aube,  Girard  de  Vienne ,  Aimeri  de  Narbonne ,  Les  Narbonnais, 
and  Beuve  de  Hanstone. 

Girard  de  Vienne  and  Aimeri  de  Narbonne  were  directly 
imitated  by  Victor  Hugo  in  Aymerillot  and  the  Manage  de 
Roland  for  the  Légende  des  Siècles.  We  know  a  little  about 
Bertrand  de  Bar,  that  fine  trouvère  who  is  to  be  reckoned 
as  the  greatest  of  the  French  poets  whose  names  are  known 
with  certainty.  He  lived  at  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century, 
at  Bar-sur-Aube,  where  he  composed  some  of  his  poems, 
notably  Beuve  de  Hanstone ,  for  Gui  de  Hanstone,  who 
44  nourished  ”  him.  He  had  been  previously  in  the  pay  of 
Doon  de  Mayence,  whom  he  left  through  a  grievance  ;  more- 

59 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


over,  from  malice  he  made  one  of  his  ancestors,  Doon  de 
Mayence,  play  an  odious  part  in  Beuve  de  Hanstone.  Bertrand 
was  a  cleric.  It  was  also  at  Bar-sur-Aube  that  he  composed 
Girard  de  Vienne. 

At  Bar-sur-Aube  in  a  castle  seigniorial 
Sits  Bertrand,  pensive  in  an  orchard, 

A  gentle  clerk  who  made  this  song.  .  .  . 

(v.  1-3.) 

Perhaps  we  owe  Boon  de  Mayence  also  to  Bertrand. 

However  this  may  be,  he  was  a  prolific  poet  and  greatly 
renowned  in  his  own  day,  as  is  shown  in  the  verse  of  Boon  de 
Nanteuil  : 

For  sure  he  has  learnt  more  in  a  single  year, 

Than  Bertrand  de  Bar  knew  in  all  his  life.  .  .  . 

Thus  Bertrand  de  Bar  wrote  his  epics  for  the  great  noble 
families  ;  just  as  in  the  following  generation,  when  the  period 
of  epic  poetry  was  past,  the  poet  who  composes — still  very 
often  in  the  epic  vein — the  life  of  Guillaume  le  Maréchal 
writes  for  the  family  of  the  noble  lord  : 

When  the  kindred,  sisters,  and  brother, 

Shall  hear  this,  much  will  they  have  it  at  heart. 

(19201.) 

It  has  often  been  asked,  what  historic  element  is  to  be 
found  in  the  chansons  de  geste ,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
actuality  of  the  facts  ? 

If  one  considers  the  great  figures  of  Clovis,  Dagobert, 
Charlemagne,  Hugh  Capet,  who  pass  before  us  in  these  stories, 
the  actions  which  are  attributed  to  them  are  legendary  or  even 
drawn  from  the  imagination  ;  as  to  the  heroes  of  the  great 
families,  the  tradition  complacently  handed  down  in  the 
families  and  received  by  the  poets  attribute  to  them  fabulous 
actions  ;  but  if  the  scholar  can  draw  nothing  from  these  poems 
from  the  point  of  view  of  historic  fact,  he  can,  on  the  other 
hand,  reap  an  ample  harvest  in  seeking  there  the  beliefs,  the 
manners,  the  ideas,  the  sentiments  of  the  French  people  in  the 
eleventh,  twelfth,  and  thirteenth  centuries.  The  characters 
in  these  poems  are  imaginary,  or  distorted  so  much  that  it  is 
impossible  to  identify  them  ;  but  the  surroundings  in  which 
60 


THE  EPICS 


they  move,  the  costumes  in  which  they  are  dressed,  the  senti¬ 
ments  they  express,  are  rigorously  accurate. 

It  would  require  many  pages  to  illustrate  in  detail  the  way 
in  which  the  poets  draw  on  reality.  Here  is  one  fact  among 
others.  It  is  borrowed  from  Renaud  de  Montauban,  or  poem 
of  the  Four  Sons  of  Aymon. 

For  some  months  Renaud  has  been  besieged  with  his  family 
by  Charlemagne.  In  his  castle,  he  is  suffering  from  hunger. 
After  the  cattle,  he  has  had  all  the  horses  within  the  walls 
killed  ;  there  remains  to  him  only  his  famous  horse  Bayard. 
Him  at  least  he  would  spare,  but  since  his  children  are 
crying  for  food,  Renaud,  without  killing  the  noble  beast, 
draws  from  it  some  blood  on  which  he  and  his  subsist  for 
some  days  longer.  This  incident,  in  a  poem  not  too  sparing 
of  improbabilities,  seems  one  of  the  most  unlikely.  Truth  is 
sometimes  .  .  .  Boileau  will  say.  The  poet  had  heard  the 
accounts  of  the  episodes  of  the  siege  of  Antioch  by  Kerboga  : 

“  Many  people,”  we  read  in  the  G  esta  Dei  per  Francos , 
“  nourished  themselves  with  the  blood  of  their  horses,  whose 
veins  they  sucked  ;  but  they  took  care  not  to  kill  them,  for  they 
had  not  lost  all  hope  of  salvation.” 

These  chansons  de  geste ,  which  have  nothing  historical  as 
far  as  the  heroes  and  the  reality  of  their  facts  are  concerned, 
were  received  by  those  who  listened  to  them  as  authentic 
history. 

The  auditors  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  who 
heard  them  were  convinced  that  “  it  had  actually  happened.” 
The  “  reality  ”  of  these  tales  formed  for  them  their  chief  interest. 

Seigneur,  hear  a  song  of  great  nobility, 

It  is  all  true  history.  .  .  . 

( Les  Quatre  fils  Aymon ,  v.  1,  2.) 

This  reflection  is  repeated  in  these  old  poems  under  the 
most  diverse  forms.  One  might  justly  say  that  the  epic  is, 
for  the  people  who  produce  it,  the  earliest  form  of  history. 
On  the  day  it  ceases  to  be  regarded  as  history  and  becomes 
literature  it  ceases  to  be  epic,  and  this  observation,  which 
others  have  made  before  us,  is  much  truer  than  one  might 
think,  with  regard  to  the  Middle  Ages.  Pierre  Dubois  was  an 
advocate,  a  lawyer  who  devoted  his  powers  and  his  knowledge, 

61 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

at  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century,  to  drawing  up  for  Philip 
the  Fair  grave  and  learned  political  treatises  :  4 4  Charlemagne, 
who  has  no  equal,”  he  cries,  44  is  the  only  prince,  as  far  as  I 
can  remember,  who,  during  a  hundred  years  and  more,  marched 
in  person  at  the  head  of  the  most  distant  armies  ”  (De  récupéra¬ 
tions  Terre  sancte).  Thus,  a  Pierre  Dubois,  at  an  advanced 
period  of  the  Middle  Ages,  accepted  still  as  sober  history  the 
epic  songs  of  the  troubadours. 

The  form  of  the  chansons  de  geste  is  simple  and  abrupt  ;  but 
frequently  their  expressions  are  splendidly  forceful  in  their 
conciseness,  and  magnificent  in  their  colour. 

There  was  great  carpentry  of  swords, 

And  the  earth  is  robed  with  pagans.  .  .  . 

(La  bataille  d'Aleschans ,  v.  490.) 

Finally,  two  words  on  the  connection  which  exists  between 
the  Homeric  poems  and  our  chansons  de  geste.  They  paint 
an  identical  social  state.  The  Greek  poets  call  44  kings  ” 
those  whom  the  troubadours  call  44  barons.”  The  beginnings 
of  the  great  struggles  which  serve  as  theme  to  the  story  are 
in  both  cases  concerned  with  women  (histoires  de  femmes). 
44  The  demoiselle  was  not  eight  and  a  half  years  old.  She  was 
already  the  most  beautiful  maid  possible.”  44  Take  her  and, 
with  her,  the  honour  of  my  4  land,’  ”  says  King  Tierri  de 
Maurienne  to  Garin  de  Metz.  44  Alas  !  ”  the  Poet  adds,  44  the 
maid  came  into  the  world  in  an  evil  hour  ;  no  one  shall  ever 
count  the  number  of  gallant  men  who  were  to  die  on  her  account  ” 
(Garin  le  Loherain).  The  adventures  of  Girard  de  Roussillon 
have  their  origin  in  an  amorous  rivalry.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  epic  poem  devoted  to  Girard  de  Vienne,  the  wife  of  Char¬ 
lemagne  insults  the  noble  baron.  Hence  violent  anger,  open 
revolt.  Charlemagne  comes  to  lay  siege  to  Vienne.  Like  the 
siege  of  Troy,  this  lasts  seven  years.  Among  the  besiegers  is 
Roland,  who  cannot  fail  to  remind  us  of  Achilles  ;  and  among 
the  besieged  Oliver,  calmer,  more  delicate  and  cultivated,  is 
Hector. 

Roland  is  brave  and  Oliver  is  wise. 

Do  not  the  epic  poets  make  Roland  invulnerable  like 
Achilles  ?  But  the  Christian  spirit  gives  a  sublime  issue  to 
62 


THE  EPICS 


the  duel  between  the  two  rivals  which  Oliver’s  sister,  the  fair¬ 
faced  Aude,  was  watching  from  the  battlements  : 

It  was  thus  that  Roland  espoused  the  fair  Aude. 

As  in  Homer,  the  women  of  our  chansons  de  geste  remain 
always  young  and  beautiful  :  Penelope  up  to  the  end  of  the 
Odyssey ,  Berthe  up  to  the  end  of  Girart  de  Roussillon .  As  in 
Homer,  the  warriors  of  the  chansons  de  geste  are  ever  young  and 
vigorous  :  Charlemagne  is  more  than  a  hundred  years  old  when 
he  splits  from  head  to  waist  a  knight  in  full  armour.  Like  the 
Homeric  heroes,  the  heroes  of  the  chansons  de  geste  abuse  each 
other  like  pedlars  before  closing  in  fight.  As  for  the  Homeric 
epithet,  if  it  has  less  savour  and  picturesqueness  in  the  Chanson 
de  Roland  than  in  the  Iliad ,  it  has  still  there  a  singular  nobility. 

Like  the  Homeric  poems,  the  works  of  our  old  poets  were 
chanted  to  throngs  of  the  people  whose  thoughts  they  kindled 
with  their  sublime  accents. 

Gilles  de  Paris  tells  in  his  Carolinus  how  in  the  streets,  or 
at  the  cross-roads,  the  chansons  de  geste  were  sung  to  the 
accompaniment  of  the  viol  :  “  The  venerable  name  of  Charles, 
glorious  descendant  of  the  illustrious  Pépin,  is  on  every  tongue. 
His  high  deeds  are  sung  throughout  the  world  to  the  sweet 
accompaniment  of  the  viol.” 

We  read  in  a  letter  in  verse  written  in  Italy  about  the  end 
of  the  thirteenth  century  :  “I  was  lounging  in  the  streets 
when  I  caught  sight  of  a  singer  perched  on  a  stage,  whence  he 
squalled  the  renown  of  the  Carolingian  armies  and  of  the 
French  :  the  crowd  hung  in  clusters  round  him,  pricking  up 
their  ears  under  the  charm  of  his  Orpheus.  I  listen  in  silence. 
These  verses,  written  in  French,  are  deformed  by  barbarisms, 
but  the  poet  unfolds  according  to  his  fancy  the  plot  of  the 
story.” 

Principal  Chansons  de  Geste. — La  Chanson  de  Roland ,  various 
editions  ;  La  Chançun  de  Guillelme ,  ed.  Herm.  Suchier,  Bibliotheca  norman - 
nica,  1911  ;  Le  Pèlerinage  de  Charlemagne ,  Karls  des  Grossen  Reise  nach 
Jerusalem  u.  Constantinopel,  ed.  Koschwitz  in  the  Altfranzôsiche  Bibliothèk , 
1880  ;  Raoul  de  Cambrait  ed.  Meyer  and  Longon,  1882  ;  Garin  le  Loherain , 
translated  by  P.  Paris  (1862)  ;  Girart  de  Roussillon,  ed.  P.  Meyer,  1884  ; 
Les  trois  épopées  de  Bertrand  de  Bar  :  Girard  de  Viane,  ed.  Tarbe,  Reims, 

63 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


1850,  Aymeri  de  Narbonne ,  ed.  Demaison,  1887,  2  vols.,  Les  Narbonnais , 
ed.  Suchier,  1898-99,  2  vols.  ;  Ogier  de  Danois ,  ed.  Barrois,  1842. 

Le  Cycle  de  Guillaume  d' Orange,  ed.  Jonckbloet,  The  Hague,  1854, 
2  vols.,  containing  li  Coronemens  Looys,  li  Charrois  de  Nymes,  la  Prise 
d'Orenge,  li  Covenans  Viviens ,  la  bataille  d' Ales  chans. 

Renaud  de  Montauban  or  Roman  des  Quatre  fils  Aymon ,  ed.  Castets, 
Montpelier,  1909  ;  L.  Gautier  published  a  Bibliographie  des  Chansons  de 
geste,  1897. 

Historical  Works. — Leon  Gautier,  Les  Epopées  françaises,  2nd  ed., 
1878-92,  4  vols.  ;  Gaston  Paris,  Histoire  poétique  de  Charlemagne,  1865  ; 
Gaston  Paris,  La  Chanson  du  Pèlerinage  de  Charlemagne,  in  Romania ,  ix. 
(1880),  p.  1  et  seq.  ;  Paul  Meyer,  Recherches' sur  V épopée  française,  Examen 
critique  de  Vhistoire  de  Charlemagne,  1867  ;  Pio  Ragna,  Orig.  delV  epopea 
francese,  Florence,  1884  ;  Jos.  Bédier,  Les  Legendes  epiques,  1908-13, 
4  vols.  ;  Jacq.  Flach,  44  La  Naissance  de  la  chanson  de  geste,”  Journal  des 
Savants,  1909,  pp.  27-38  and  116-26  ;  E.  Petit, 44  Croisades  bourguignonnes 
contre  les  Sarrazains  d’Espagne  au  XIe  Siècle,”  Rev.  Hist.,  1886. 


64 


CHAPTER  IV 


THE  ELEVENTH  CENTURY 

Robert  the  Pious  and  his  master  Gerbert.  The  rôle  of  the  clergy 
at  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century.  Usefulness  of  the 
monasteries.  The  heresiarchs  of  Orleans.  Robert  repudiates 
his  wife  Rozala  to  marry  his  cousin  Berthe.  Anathema.  His 
marriage  with  Constance  of  Aquitaine.  Famine  years.  The 
reign  of  Henry  I,  his  opposition  to  the  clergy,  his  marriage 
with  Anne,  daughter  of  the  Grand  Duke  of  Kief.  Accession  of 
Philip  I  ;  his  tutor  Baldwin  of  Flanders.  Struggles  between  the 
feudatories  of  the  royal  domain.  The  court  of  the  barons.  The 
sons  of  Tancrède  de  Haute  ville.  The  Kingdom  of  the  Two 
Sicilies.  The  conquest  of  England  by  William,  Duke  of  Nor¬ 
mandy.  Philip  I  and  Bertrade  de  Montfort.  The  Investiture 
dispute.  The  papal  legates  and  religious  orders  maintain  the 
Roman  pretensions  against  the  King  and  the  French  bishops. 
Cluny.  Exemption  and  immunity.  Royal  administration  :  the 

Provosts. 

THE  eleventh  century  opened  in  F  ranee  during  the 
reign  of  Robert  the  Pious,  the  son  of  Hugh  Capet. 
Robert  had  ascended  the  throne  in  996.  He  was  a 
young  man  of  twenty-six,  tall,  broad-shouldered,  and  already 
fat,  but  not  so  that  his  weight  rendered  him  heavy  in  moving. 
A  Crowned  He  a  s^ort  nose  ;  the  expression  of  his  eyes 
Monk  :  Robert  was  profound,  gentle,  very  affectionate,  matching 
the  Pious.  the  smile  on  his  lips,  which  charmed  by  its  kindli¬ 
ness.  His  father  had  given  him  a  brilliant  education  at  the 
school  of  Reims,  under  the  direction  of  Gerbert. 

Sprung  from  the  centre  of  France,  probably  from  Auvergne, 
Gerbert  is  to  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  powerful  minds 
which  have  ever  existed.  There  were  then  connected  with 
every  cathedral  church — that  is  to  say,  in  every  church  which 
had  an  archiépiscopal  or  episcopal  see — classes  under  the  direc- 

E  65 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


tion  of  a  “  doctor  ”  (écolàtre).  In  this  capacity  Adalbéron, 
Archbishop  of  Reims,  had  secured  Gerbert  d’Aurillac,  so  called 
because  he  had  passed  his  childhood  in  that  town  in  the  monastery 
of  St.  Géraud.  Gerbert  was  born  about  940-45,  of  a  poor 
family.  He  had  devoted  himself  passionately  to  the  cultiva¬ 
tion  not  only  of  sacred  literature  but  also  of  profane,  which  was 
rare  in  the  case  of  a  Churchman.  He  wrote  to  a  certain  Ramnulfe, 
whom  he  had  charged  with  the  collection  of  some  manuscripts  : 
44  Nothing  is  more  precious  than  the  knowledge  of  great  men 
put  forth  in  books.  Pursue  the  task  you  have  begun,  offer  to 
my  thirsting  lips  the  waters  of  the  eloquence  of  Marcus  Tullius 
(Cicero)  ;  his  genius  will  soften  the  cares  with  which  I  am 
besieged.” 

The  knowledge  which  Gerbert  had  of  mathematics  and 
astronomy  went  so  far  for  the  period  that  the  men  of  his  time 
accused  him  of  magic.  It  is  by  an  error,  however,  that  the 
introduction  of  Arabic  figures  has  been  attributed  to  him. 

Under  the  direction  of  Gerbert,  Robert  learned  logic — that 
is  to  say,  philosophy,  mathematics,  and  grammar,  i.e.  Latin, 
and  music,  regarded  at  that  time  as  a  science. 

The  chronicler,  Richer,  who  was  also  a  pupil  of  Gerbert, 
says  of  his  master  :  44  Gerbert  fixed  the  generation  of  tones 
on  the  monochord  ;  he  distinguished  their  consonances  into 
tones  and  semitones,  also  into  4  ditons 9  and  4  dièzes,’  and 
by  a  suitable  classification  of  sounds  he  spread  abroad  a 
perfect  knowledge  of  this  science.” 

The  monochord  consisted  of  a  single  string  stretched  over 
two  bridges,  by  which  the  proportions  of  musical  sounds  were 
measured  geometrically  ;  the  44  diton  ”  corresponded  to  our 
major  third. 

The  merit  of  Gerbert  was  to  teach  clearly  the  musical 
science  of  his  time  :  he  may  not  have  gone  beyond  what  old 
Boëtius  had  said  in  his  books  de  Musica.  It  was  only  after 
the  death  of  Gerbert  that  a  monk  of  Pomposa,  Guido  d’Arezzo 
(eleventh  century),  directed  music  into  new  paths.  Even  if 
Gerbert  did  not  invent  the  scale,  he  was,  at  least,  the  first  to 
have  the  idea  of  drawing  staves  in  which  musical  notation 
should  be  fixed — four  lines — and  which  are  still  in  use  in  plain 
chant  ;  then  too  he  gave  to  the  notes  the  short  and  sonorous 
66 


THE  ELEVENTH  CENTURY 


names  which  they  have  kept,  the  first  syllables  of  the  first 
verses  of  the  hymn  to  St.  John  : 

Ut  queant  laxis 
Resonare  fibris 
Mira  gestorum 
Famuli  tuorum, 

Solve  polluti 
Labii  reatum, 

Sancte  Johannes. 

(So  that  thy  servants  may  make  the  marvels  of  thy  actions 
resound  on  the  slackened  fibres  of  their  affections,  take  away 
sin  from  their  polluted  lips,  oh,  St.  John  !) 

In  the  seventeenth  century  the  Italians  replaced  ut  by  do. 

The  scale  is  nominally  composed  of  six  notes  only.  The 
designation  si  will  be  introduced  only  at  a  later  date. 

Robert  retained  a  profound  impression  of  the  instruction 
he  had  received  through  the  pains  of  the  Doctor  of  Reims.  On 
the  throne  he  is  to  be  an  educated  prince,  a  scholar.  “  Régnante 
rege  theosopho,”  write  the  chroniclers.  He  loves  books,  has 
manuscripts  copied,  and  buys  many.  He  takes  with  him,  in 
moving  from  place  to  place,  part  of  his  library,  and  we  know 
that  when  he  is  going  to  Rome,  “  during  this  long  journey  the 
consolation  of  reading  will  not  fail  him.”  He  chants  in  stall, 
vested  with  a  cope  like  the  other  clerics.  From  this  came  the 
legend  that  King  Robert  composed  the  words  of  some  hymns 
and  religious  chants,  notably  of  the  response  :  “  O  constantia 
martyrum.  ...”  But  of  the  various  Latin  poems  attributed 
to  Robert,  some  are  due  to  Notker  the  Stammerer,  who  lived 
in  the  ninth  century,  while  the  others  are  more  ancient  still. 
At  most,  Robert  can  only  have  composed  the  music  of  these 
various  hymns  and  responses  :  and  this  would  be  more  easily 
explained  by  the  fact  that  the  old  chroniclers,  in  indicating  the 
author  of  a  chant,  make  allusion  as  a  rule  only  to  the  composer 
of  the  music,  not  of  the  words. 

Nevertheless,  we  must  not  allow  the  erudition  of  King 
Robert,  his  taste  for  literature  and  fine  religious  ceremonies, 
his  musical  talent  and  the  part  he  took  in  theological  discussions, 
to  delude  us  as  to  his  real  character.  Neither  must  we  allow 
his  biography  by  the  monk  Helgaud,  which  is  almost  a  “  hagio- 

67 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


graphy,”  a  “  saint’s  life,”  to  mislead  us.  Robert  the  Pious  was 
a  politician  and  a  soldier  ;  admirable  on  horseback,  his  broad 
shoulders  supporting  with  ease  the  hooded  tunic  of  leather  or  the 
hauberk  of  brass,  he  traversed  the  roads  of  the  Ile-de-France 
at  the  head  of  a  company  ( mesnie )  clad  in  armour,  to  confine 
within  the  limits  of  their  fiefs  the  violent  activity  of  his  vassals. 

We  have  seen  the  formation  of  feudalism:  thousands  and  thou¬ 
sands  of  local  groups  spread  over  the  land  and  forming  so  many 
little  States — States  with  precise  limits  which  each  will  try  to 
extend  at  the  expense  of  the  little  neighbouring  States  whose 
inhabitants  look  upon  outsiders  as  strangers,  even  as  enemies. 
Favoured  by  the  peace  which  reigns  in  each  of  these  communities, 
agriculture  develops.  And  now,  following  this  early  progress, 
new  needs  arise.  The  resources  of  the  feudal  domain,  which 
has  been  organized  so  as  to  be  self-sufficing,  cannot  respond 
to  more  complex  demands.  Hence  the  beginnings  of  a  com¬ 
mercial  movement,  still  embryonic,  but  which  will,  none  the  less, 
furnish  to  the  lord  with  his  armed  men  round  him  the  tempta¬ 
tion  to  use  his  strength  and  transform  himself  into  a  brigand. 
He  continues  to  maintain  peace  and  concord  among  his  “  sub¬ 
jects,”  but  he  does  not  always  resist  the  temptation  of  making 
some  fruitful  foray  outside  his  fief.  And  the  consequences  of 
this  are  apparent.  Dwellings  are  fortified  still  further,  the 
fortresses  surround  themselves  with  higher  walls,  with  ditches 
deeper  still.  There  is  no  feudal  group,  rough  and  fierce,  which 
does  not  fear  a  surprise,  while  at  the  same  time  seeking  to 
surprise  its  neighbours. 

And  the  necessity  of  the  royal  power  at  the  summit  of 
this  feudalism  appears  more  and  more  clearly.  A  successor 
of  Robert  the  Pious,  Philip  I,  will  use  a  happy  expression  to 
describe  his  authority,  when  he  says  that  it  is  placed  at  the 
head  of  all  the  others  (Patent  in  favour  of  the  Abbey  of  Bee). 

In  the  country  included  between  Normandy  and  Cham¬ 
pagne,  Flanders  and  Anjou,  Robert  the  Pious,  then,  is  constantly 
on  the  roads  riding  with  sword  in  hand  to  restrain  troublesome 
neighbours.  He  brings  to  reason  Arnould  d’Yèvre,  Eude  de 
Deols,  Geoffroi  de  Châteaudun.  This  struggle  against  the 
more  violent  feudatories  will  be  the  task  of  Robert  the  Pious 
and  his  successors  down  to  Philip  Augustus, 

68 


THE  ELEVENTH  CENTURY 


The  same  causes  which  assured  the  progress  of  the  royal 
power  formed  at  this  period  the  force  of  religious  ideas  and 
strengthened  the  authority  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  represented 
in  France  by  his  legates  and  by  the  religious  orders. 

In  this  Society,  divided  up  into  various  States,  the  royal 
power  in  its  right  to  administer  justice  represents  the  sole 
common  authority  ;  in  the  same  way  the  Church  represents 
the  only  ideas  and  beliefs  which  can  draw  together  these  separate 
groups,  the  only  moral  idea  which  can  give  them  solidarity 
and  unite  them  in  a  common  work.  Luchaire  has  said  very 
justly  that  the  security  of  the  clergy  was  then  a  public  necessity, 
and  that  it  was  the  guarantee  of  prosperity  and  social  progress. 

The  influence  of  the  bishops,  so  great  under  the  Merovingians 
and  the  Carolingians,  grows  weaker  under  the  first  Capetians  ; 
it  passes  into  the  hands  of  the  abbots,  heads  of  the  great 
monasteries,  and  of  the  papal  legates.  And  the  reason  for  this 
is  again  to  be  found  in  the  constitution  of  feudal  society.  Each 
bishop  was  a  lord  whose  action  was  limited  to  his  diocese,  even 
to  the  city  where  he  had  his  see.  The  great  monasteries,  on 
the  contrary,  while  representing,  in  the  person  of  their  abbots, 
feudal  units,  enlarged  their  circle  of  influence  and  extended  it 
over  the  kingdom  in  which  their  order  was  spread.  The  monks 
went  from  one  convent  to  another.  One  saw  them  on  the 
roads  spreading  from  one  halting-place  to  another  the  ideals 
which  they  cherished. 

Above  all,  the  Order  of  Cluny,  which  was  to  be  represented 
by  a  succession  of  very  fine  abbots,  exercised  a  powerful  influ¬ 
ence.  And  then  these  convents,  by  the  co-ordination  of  the 
efforts  which  united  the  numerous  monks  of  a  single  establish¬ 
ment,  became  the  centres  of  instruction,  taking  this  word  in  its 
widest  and  most  practical  sense  :  architecture,  agriculture, 
mechanical  arts,  and  the  arts  properly  so  called. 

The  work  accomplished  by  the  religious  orders  of  the 
eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries,  by  the  Cluniacs  and  the 
Cistercians,  has  been  very  justly  distinguished  from  that  to  be 
achieved  by  the  orders  founded  later,  the  Dominicans  and 
Franciscans.  The  former  achieve  practical  work  ;  they  are 
agriculturists,  masons,  artisans  ;  they  bring  waste  land  into 
cultivation,  make  admirable  advances  in  architecture  ;  under 

69 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


the  inspiration  of  the  Faith  they  form  the  most  fertile  centres 
of  secular  culture  ;  their  successors  are  to  consecrate  their 
efforts  to  the  defence  and  propagation  of  doctrine  ;  they  will 
struggle  against  heresy  ;  they  are  to  perform  essentially  the 
work  of  proselytization. 

During  the  whole  of  the  eleventh  century  the  delicate 
brushes  which  adorn  the  manuscripts  are  hardly  handled  out¬ 
side  the  monasteries.  44  At  this  time,”  writes  a  contemporary, 
“  there  was  in  the  Abbey  of  Saint-Melaine,  at  Rennes,  a  brother 
named  Valère,  of  an  ingenious  mind,  clever  in  practical  arts 
and  in  making  stained-glass  windows.  He  ‘  irradiated  ’  the 
monastery  with  them.” 

People  pointed  the  finger,  says  Ordericus  Vitalis,  at  any 
lord  who  did  not  maintain  at  least  one  monastery  on  his  lands. 
Every  baron  careful  of  his  duties  ought  to  have,  for  the  good 
of  his  vassals,  a  solid  keep  with  a  vast  enclosure  as  a  refuge 
in  case  of  alarm,  a  town  with  a  market  as  a  centre  of  exchange, 
and  lastly  a  monastery  as  a  centre  of  culture  and  instruction. 

As  to  the  Papacy,  it  represents  at  the  summit  of  the  human 
hierarchy  the  point  where  ideas  concentrate,  the  tie  which 
unites  them.  Moreover,  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  the  French 
clergy  since  the  Council  of  Verzy  (991)  to  dispense  with  their 
co-operation  at  least  in  temporal  matters,  the  authority  of  the 
Sovereign  Pontiffs,  represented  by  their  legates  and  supported 
by  the  religious  orders,  was  destined  to  increase. 

This  makes  it  easy  to  understand  the  bond  of  union  which 
is  formed  between  the  Crown  and  the  secular  clergy.  We 
have  spoken  of  the  ecclesiastical  character  of  the  Capetian 
monastery.  The  mediaeval  clergy  in  France  are  more  44  royal  ” 
than  44  Roman.”  Their  head  is  the  King  of  St.  Denis. 
Assembled  under  the  presidency  of  Robert  the  Pious  at  the 
Synod  of  Chelles,  the  Archbishops  of  Reims  (Gerbert),  Sens, 
Tours,  and  Bourges,  assisted  by  their  suffragans,  declare  that 
the  Pope  has  no  authority  as  against  the  bishops  of  a  province 
of  France,  and  that  the  latter  have  even  the  right  to  annul 
his  decisions. 

King  Robert,  writes  Richer,  44  was  conspicuous  for  his  know¬ 
ledge  of  divine  and  canon  law  ;  he  took  part  in  the  synods  of 
the  bishops,  in  which  he  held  forth  on  ecclesiastical  affairs  and 
70 


THE  ELEVENTH  CENTURY 


joined  with  them  in  regulating  these.  On  these  occasions  he 
showed  his  talent  for  speaking.”  The  gifts  of  oratory  were 
bestowed  on  most  of  the  Capetians.  They  often  made  use  of 
it  to  address  the  people  directly,  and  particularly  the  people 
of  Paris,  when  they  wished  to  explain  to  them,  in  important 
matters,  their  policy,  and  ask  for  their  co-operation. 

In  his  capacity  of  head  of  his  clergy,  Robert  the  Pious  took 
part  in  the  discussion  and  repression  of  the  heresies  which 
arose  during  his  reign.  That  of  the  Canons  of  Orleans  made  a 
great  stir.  According  to  Raoul  the  Shaven  (le  Glabre),  a  woman 
had  introduced  it  from  Italy.  Several  Canons  of  Ste. -Croix 
constituted  themselves  the  zealous  preachers  of  the  new  doc¬ 
trine  ;  but  we  have  no  really  definite  information  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  44  error.” 

44  With  their  frightful  barkings  they  proclaimed  the  heresy 
of  Epicurus,”  writes  le  Glabre  ;  44  they  no  longer  believed  in  the 
punishment  of  sins,  or  in  the  eternal  reward  for  pious  works.” 
In  1022  King  Robert  summoned  in  the  Cathedral  of  Orleans 
an  assembly  of  bishops  and  barons  before  whom  were  dragged 
the  heretics,  laden  with  chains.  The  wretches,  terrified,  at  first 
kept  silence  ;  then  they  recovered  themselves  and  entered 
into  discussion  with  the  King.  Robert  showed  himself  an 
informed  theologian,  a  subtle  dialectician,  and  a  fluent  speaker. 
The  debate  lasted  nine  hours. 

At  last,  wearied  out,  the  accused  cried  : 

44  Let  us  finish  with  this  chatter,  do  with  us  what  you  will  ! 
Already  we  see  our  King  who  reigns  on  high  ;  He  extends  His 
arms  to  us  and  calls  us  to  imperishable  triumphs  ;  He  is 
summoning  us  to  the  joys  of  heaven.” 

At  the  door  of  the  church  Queen  Constance  wanted  to 
put  out  the  eyes  of  one  of  the  heretics  with  a  golden  pin.  On 
the  Feast  of  the  Holy  Innocents  fourteen  of  these  unfortunate 
people  were  burned  alive  at  the  gates  of  the  town.  It  was 
the  first  stake  kindled  in  France  for  heresy. 

Neither  its  memory  nor  his  responsibility  for  it  troubled 
King  Robert,  who  dates  one  of  his  charters  from  44  the  year 
in  which  the  arch-heretic  Etienne  and  his  accomplices  were 
condemned  and  burned  at  Orleans.” 

After  all,  one  must  put  the  correct  significance  on  this 

71 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


matter  of  persecutions.  They  are  not  special  to  any  religion, 
any  people,  or  any  time.  Persecutions  have  been  carried  out 
in  the  name  of  every  religious  idea,  and  that,  not  because 
they  were  ideas  of  religion  but  because  they  were  ideas  affecting 
Society.  The  Romans  only  persecuted  the  Christians  when 
their  doctrines  shook  the  foundations,  and  more  particularly 
the  economic  conditions,  on  which  ancient  society  rested. 

The  manners,  ideas,  beliefs,  and  customs  of  a  people 
crystallize,  if  one  may  say  so,  under  the  form  of  religion. 
It  is  under  this  form  that  they  have  the  most  strength,  activity, 
energy,  and  intensity  ;  it  is  under  this  form  alone  that  they  act 
on  a  primitive  people.  And  the  people  cling  to  them  only  in 
the  degree  in  which  these  beliefs  are  necessary  to  their  social 
life.  It  is  a  movement  common  and  instinctive,  irresistible  as 
always  when  it  is  a  matter  of  national  evolution.  With  the 
triumph  of  a  heresy  such  as  that  of  the  Manicheans  at  the 
beginning  of  the  eleventh  century  France  would  have  melted 
away,  unless  indeed  this  new  doctrine  in  another  form  had 
become  the  soul  of  a  new  society,  different  from  that  which 
had  preceded  it — a  new  society  and  religion  which,  in  their 
turn,  under  pain  of  ruin,  would  have  been  condemned  to 
intolerance. 

However  deep  was  his  religious  devotion,  and  however  keen 
his  eagerness  to  favour  the  churches  and  monasteries,  Robert  I 
resisted  none  the  less  the  encroachments  of  the  ecclesiastical 
powers  :  a  policy  which,  from  Hugh  Capet  to  Philip  the  Fair, 
was  that  of  all  the  Capetians,  including  Saint  Louis.  In  a  love 
story,  the  struggle  of  King  Robert  against  the  Roman  Court 
was  to  take  a  dramatic  turn. 

In  988,  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  Robert  had  married  an 
Italian  lady  older  than  himself,  Rozala,  daughter  of  Beren- 
garius,  King  of  Italy,  and  widow  of  Arnoul  II,  Count  of 
Flanders.  Rozala  had  deep  black  eyes,  with  a  hard  and  dis¬ 
concerting  expression  ;  her  hair,  plaited  in  bands,  looked  like 
crows’  wings.  She  had  brought  as  a  dowry  to  the  King  of 
France  the  castellany  of  Montreuil  en  Ponthieu,  a  precious 
acquisition  for  the  house  of  Capet,  which  through  it,  for  the 
first  time,  reached  the  sea.  In  France  Rozala  was  called 
Suzanne.  This  marriage,  dictated  by  political  interest,  was 
72 


THE  ELEVENTH  CENTURY 


not  happy.  A  big,  robust  fellow,  Robert  liked  little  pink-and- 
white  women.  It  was  not  long  before  he  conceived  a  horror 
of  “  his  old  Italian  ”  with  her  tanned  complexion.  He  re¬ 
pudiated  her.  Rozala  went  back  to  Flanders,  to  her  son, 
Baldwin  le  Barbu  (the  Bearded),  whence  she  claimed,  justly 
but  in  vain,  the  restitution  of  her  marriage  portion,  the  Château 
of  Montreuil.  Politics  having  been  successful  in  the  matter 
of  marriage  only  from  the  point  of  view  of  increasing  his 
domains,  Robert  gave  himself  up  to  the  splendid  illusion  of  a 
marriage  for  love.  While  Rozala  was  still  alive  he  married 
Berthe  de  Bourgogne,  young,  fair,  little,  and  plump,  with  long 
flaxen  hair.  The  son  of  Hugh  Capet  loved  her  with  all  his  soul. 
Imagine  his  fury  when  Rome  ordered  him  to  break  this  union 
on  the  ground  of  kinship.  The  kinship  of  Berthe  and  Robert 
was  real  :  they  were  related  in  the  third  degree  counting 
according  to  the  method  in  use  at  the  time  ;  in  the  sixth  degree 
counting  as  we  do  now.  Robert  resisted  the  most  urgent 
commands.  Finally,  the  Pope,  Gregory  V,  a  German,  sum¬ 
moned  a  General  Council  at  Rome  in  order  to  pass  judgment  in 
it  on  the  King  of  France  (998). 

The  Council  decided  that  Robert  must  leave  Berthe  or 
suffer  anathema,  and  his  fair  spouse  also.  Anathema  was  the 
gravest  punishment  the  Church  could  pronounce,  much  more 
serious  than  excommunication,  since  the  person  anathematized 
was  not  only  put  out  of  the  Church,  but  condemned  to  hell. 

Robert  the  Pious  held  out  and  kept  his  beloved  wife  by 
his  side.  The  papal  throne  launched  its  thunders,  which,  as 
far  as  that  goes,  did  not  seem  to  alarm  the  young  couple  unduly. 
We  see  them,  as  man  and  wife,  making  donations  to  abbeys. 
A  great  number  of  the  French  bishops  ranged  themselves  on 
the  side  of  the  King.  Thus  the  legends  fall  to  pieces,  as  to 
the  effects  of  the  anathema  pronounced  against  Robert  the 
Pious  and  Berthe  of  Burgundy.  According  to  these  their 
subjects  fled  at  their  approach  ;  they  could  only  keep  two 
servants,  who  threw  into  the  fire  the  plates  from  which  they 
had  eaten  ;  when  they  entered  a  town  the  bells  would  be  set 
going  until  the  moment  of  their  departure.  From  all  this, 
modern  painting  has  drawn  some  fine  pictures.  The  truth 
is  less  touching.  Under  the  title  of  Sylvester  II,  a  Frenchman, 

73 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Gerbert,  the  master  of  Robert,  succeeded  Gregory  V.  He 
moderated  the  violent  measures  of  his  predecessor.  However, 
Robert  decided  to  separate  from  Berthe.  The  separation  was 
carried  out  in  September  1001.  Berthe  was  not  giving  any 
children  to  her  husband,  and  Robert  had  no  brother  who 
could  succeed  him,  in  default  of  a  son. 

Robert’s  third  wife  was  named  Constance.  The  marriage 
was  celebrated  in  1003.  Constance  was  the  daughter  of  a 
French  count  of  the  south  called  Guillaume.  But  which 
Guillaume  ?  Guillaume,  Count  of  Poitiers,  or  Guillaume, 
Count  of  Arles,  or  William,  Count  of  Toulouse  ?  The  most 
recent  writers  pronounce  in  favour  of  the  Count  of  Arles. 

Contemporaries  speak  of  Queen  Constance  as  a  very  beauti¬ 
ful  woman  ;  she  was  called  Blandine  because  of  the  fairness 
of  her  complexion  ;  but  she  was  capricious,  haughty,  and 
imperious.  She  was  avaricious,  greedy  of  power,  violent  in 
her  malice,  hard  in  her  desire  to  dominate.  She  had  the 
Count  Palatine,  Hugh  de  Beauvais,  assassinated  under  Robert’s 
very  eyes.  A  passage  of  Raoul  le  Glabre  is  often  quoted, 
relative  to  the  influence  which  Queen  Constance,  coming  from 
the  more  polished  Courts  of  the  south,  exercised  over  the  rude 
men  of  the  north. 

“  The  lords  of  her  suite,”  says  Raoul,  “  neglected  arms  and 
horsemanship  ;  they  had  their  hair  cut  half-way  up  their  heads  ; 
they  were  shaven  like  actors,  they  wore  indecent  boots  and 
hose.”  The  good  monk  does  not  give  us  any  description  of 
these  indecent  hose.  The  clergy  of  the  Ile-de-France  always 
took  an  attitude  of  withering  indignation  against  these  southern 
fashions  :  the  first  manifestation  of  the  opposition  of  the 
France  of  the  north  and  that  of  the  south,  which  was  to  show 
itself  so  tragically  in  the  War  of  the  Albigenses. 

Berthe,  from  whom  Robert  had  separated,  had  kept  some 
partisans  at  Court,  notably  her  son  Eude,  who  was  born  of 
her  marriage  with  the  Count  of  Chartres,  and  had  just  succeeded 
his  brother  Thibaud  in  the  countships  of  Chartres,  Blois,  and 
Tours.  Robert  himself  regretted  Berthe,  gracious  and  tender, 
with  the  tranquil  brow  and  soft  blue  eyes.  Constance  had 
black  hair  like  Rozala,  coarse,  dull  hair,  a  severe  beauty,  a 
bitter  and  uneasy  disposition.  She  exasperated  her  husband. 
74 


THE  ELEVENTH  CENTURY 

None  the  less,  she  presented  him  with  four  sons.  Robert 
planned  to  have  one  of  them  crowned  during  his  own  lifetime, 
and  associate  him  with  himself  on  the  throne,  as  his  father, 
Hugh  Capet,  had  done  for  him.  The  transmission  of  the  crown 
to  the  eldest  sons  of  the  Capetian  line  was  not  yet  assured  ;  it 
depended,  according  to  law  at  least,  on  election  by  the  nobles. 
The  King  could  choose  as  associate  to  the  Crown  whichever 
of  his  sons  he  should  judge  best  capable  of  these  functions. 
Robert’s  choice  fell  on  his  eldest  son  Hugh,  who  was  crowned 
by  the  Archbishop  of  Reims  in  the  Church  of  St.  Corneille  de 
Compiègne,  on  the  19th  June  1017.  Hugh  died  on  the  17th 
September  1025.  The  question  arose  for  the  second  time  of 
choosing  an  heir  to  the  throne.  Constance  supported  the 
candidature  of  her  third  son,  called  Robert  after  his  father. 
However,  the  King  decided  this  time  again  in  favour  of  the 
eldest,  the  young  prince  who  was  to  rule  after  him  under  the 
name  of  Henry  I. 

In  foreign  affairs  King  Robert  tried  to  prevent  the  German 
princes  extending  their  power  over  our  eastern  frontier.  He 
was  also  fortunate  enough  to  get  hold  of  the  Duchy  of  Bur¬ 
gundy.  The  proposals  of  alliance  put  forward  by  Sancho, 
King  of  Aragon,  and  by  Ethelred,  King  of  England,  the  offer 
which  the  transalpine  princes  made  him  of  the  Italian  crown, 
show  the  consideration  and  authority  in  which  the  young 
Capetian  monarchy  was  already  held  in  Europe. 

A  consequence  of  the  social  organization  which  we  have 
just  described  was  the  frequent  occurrence  of  the  famines 
which  desolated  France  during  the  reigns  of  Hugh  Capet  and 
of  Robert  the  Pious.  There  was  famine  in  987,  989,  1001, 
from  1003  to  1008,  from  1010  to  1014,  from  1027  to  1029,  and 
finally  in  1031  to  1032,  the  year  which  followed  the  death  of  the 
second  Capetian  King. 

These  statistics  are  frightful.  The  scourge  was  produced 
by  the  division  which  multiplied  the  barriers  between  the  fiefs 
of  which  the  country  was  composed.  There  were  some  hundreds 
of  little  States  with  closed  frontiers  ;  innumerable  tolls,  pay¬ 
ments  for  market  rights  imposed  on  the  merchant,  unsafe 
roads  infested  with  men-at-arms  who  had  regard  only  for  the 
people  of  their  own  lord.  If  bad  harvests  desolated  a  part  of 

75 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


the  country,  food  could  not  be  brought  from  another  part  where 
the  harvests  had  been  plentiful.  In  the  eleventh  century, 
within  seventy-three  years,  forty-three  periods  of  dearth  can 
be  counted.  That  of  1031  is  described  in  moving  terms  by 
Raoul  le  Glabre  :  “  Rich  men  and  burgesses  suffered  like  the 
poor,  and  the  violence  of  the  Nobles  yielded  before  the  common 
misery.”  After  having  eaten  the  quadrupeds  and  the  birds, 
they  devoured  corpses  and  things  too  horrible  to  mention. 
“  Some  sought  a  remedy  against  death  in  the  roots  of  the  forests 
and  river  plants.”  Human  flesh  became  a  food  to  be  fought 
over.  Travellers  were  attacked  by  cannibals  who,  having 
killed  them,  cut  them  up  into  steaks  which  they  cooked  on  the 
fire.  Those  who  thought  that  they  would  escape  hunger  by 
leaving  their  homes  for  other  districts  were  killed  in  the  night 
and  eaten  by  their  hosts.  Unfortunate  children  were  enticed 
by  the  bribe  of  an  apple  or  an  egg  ;  then  in  the  solitude  of 
the  woods  they  were  killed  and  eaten.  Some  went  so  far  as 
to  eat  corpses  taken  from  the  graves.  One  wretch  is  seen 
offering  for  sale  at  the  market  of  Tournus  and  at  that  of  Mâcon 
human  meat,  which  he  had  prepared  for  cooking  like  butcher’s 
meat.  He  was  arrested  and  burned  alive.  The  meat  which 
he  had  brought  was  buried  ;  but  in  the  night  an  unfortunate 
creature,  goaded  by  hunger,  disinterred  and  devoured  it  :  he 
was  burned  in  his  turn. 

The  famished  people  at  the  end  of  their  forces  expired, 
uttering  a  feeble  cry  “  like  the  plaint  of  a  bird  at  the  point  of 
death  ”  (Raoul  le  Glabre).  They  were  buried  in  the  ditches 
of  the  fields,  until,  the  corpses  becoming  too  numerous,  they 
were  abandoned  in  heaps  at  the  corners  of  the  roads. 

The  reign  of  Henry  I  opened  under  these  sad  auspices.  We 
have  just  said  that  Queen  Constance  would  have  preferred 
A  Warrior  t°  see  her  third  son,  Robert,  crowned.  And 

King.  now  comes  civil  war  between  the  two  brothers. 

Henry  I.  The  rebels  were  supported  by  the  powerful 

Count  of  Blois  and  by  the  Seigneur  du  Puiset,  the  most 
redoubtable  of  the  unruly  vassals  (hobereaux)  of  the  Ile- 

de-France.  The  beginnings  of  the  struggle  proved  unfortu¬ 
nate  for  Henry,  who  found  a  refuge  with  Robert  le  Diable 
(the  Devil),  Duke  of  Normandy.  From  this  moment  luck 
76 


THE  ELEVENTH  CENTURY 


returned  to  him,  especially  after  the  death  of  the  Queen-Mother, 
Constance  (July  1032),  had  deprived  his  rival  of  his  chief  support. 
Unhappily,  to  restore  peace  Henry  thought  he  ought  to  give 
to  his  brother  the  Duchy  of  Burgundy,  where  the  latter  founded 
the  first  and  powerful  dynasty  of  the  dukes  of  that  name, 
who  before  long  made  themselves  practically  independent. 
It  was  to  come  to  an  end  only  in  1361,  in  the  person  of  Philip 
de  Rouvres. 

Hardly  had  the  new  King  concluded  peace  with  his  brother 
Robert,  than  his  other  brother  Eude  revolted  in  his  turn. 
He  also  allied  himself  with  the  Count  of  Blois,  and  with  the 
44  hobereaux  ”  of  the  Ile-de-France.  War  was  resumed  and 
filled  the  country  with  ruin  and  devastation  (1034-39). 
At  last  Henry  I  was  able  to  take  Eude  captive  and  imprison 
him  at  Orleans. 

We  have  seen  how,  in  the  course  of  these  struggles,  Henry 
had  found  a  useful  supporter  in  the  person  of  the  Duke  of 
Normandy,  Robert  le  Diable,  an  interested  supporter,  for  the 
King  had  to  yield  to  his  vassal  the  French  Vexin.  In  1035 
Robert  le  Diable  having  gone  on  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land, 
Henry  took  under  his  protection  the  young  William  whom 
Robert  le  Diable  had  had  as  son  by  Arlette,  the  daughter  of  a 
tanner  of  Falaise.  The  King  of  France  defended  the  son  of 
Robert  the  Devil  on  the  field  of  battle  at  the  peril  even  of  his 
own  body.  He  saved  him  at  the  Val  des  Dunes  from  the  hands 
of  the  rebellious  Norman  barons.  At  this  moment  the  union 
between  the  Norman  Duchy  and  the  French  Crown  seemed 
established,  but  it  was  not  long  before  it  broke  down. 

Henry  I  was  to  have  as  his  chief  adversary  this  same  William 
of  Normandy  whom  he  had  so  bravely  defended.  The  war 
lasted  until  1058,  and  ended  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  King 
of  France,  who  however  succeeded  in  maintaining  the  suzerainty 
of  the  French  Crown  over  the  Norman  Duchy. 

Henry  I,  who  was  quite  as  pious  as  his  father,  showed  him¬ 
self  stiff er  still  with  regard  to  the  clergy  and  the  Papacy. 
Moreover,  the  chroniclers  of  the  time,  being  ecclesiastics,  are 
not  very  favourable  to  him.  Guibert  de  Nogent  accuses  him 
of  avarice  and  of  trafficking  in  bishoprics. 

The  Sovereign  Pontiff,  Leo  X,  a  former  Bishop  of  Toul, 

77 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


had  come  to  France,  and  having  declared  his  intention  of 
calling  a  council  at  Reims,  the  King  forbade  the  bishops  to  go 
to  it. 

If  we  consider  finally  the  eastern  frontier,  we  must  admire 
the  efforts  made  by  Henry  I  to  re-establish  the  authority  of 
the  Kings  of  France,  as  far  as  the  Rhine.  He  claimed  Aix-la- 
Chapelle  “  in  virtue  of  his  hereditary  right  ”  ;  as  to  Lorraine, 
the  rights  of  the  Kings  of  France  over  these  territories,  which 
he  said  belonged  by  no  title  to  the  German  crown,  seemed  to 
him  not  less  evident.  The  figure  of  our  first  King  Henry,  then, 
stands  out  with  sufficient  brilliance  ;  the  figure  of  a  man  of 
iron,  worthy  to  preside  over  the  destinies  of  a  nation  beholding 
the  unfolding  of  the  trembling  wings  of  the  great  epics  ;  a 
figure  interesting,  too,  by  his  marriage,  in  the  full  eleventh 
century,  with  Anne,  daughter  of  the  Grand  Duke  of  Kief, 
Jaroslaw  Wladimiro witch.  It  was  Roger  II,  the  Bishop  of 
Châlons,  who,  sent  on  a  mission  to  these  far-off  regions,  brought 
back  the  princess  Anne  (1051).  From  her  marriage  with 
Henry,  a  son  was  born,  who  received,  under  the  influence  of 
the  Queen,  the  Byzantine  name  of  Philip.  As  his  father  had 
done  for  him,  Henry  I  took  the  precaution  of  having  his  son 
crowned  during  his  lifetime.  The  ceremony  took  place  at 
Reims,  on  the  23rd  May  1059.  An  account  of  the  consecration 
expressly  mentions  that  the  new  King  was  elected  by  the 
prelates  and  a  certain  number  of  lords  whose  names  are  in¬ 
dicated  ;  after  which  the  knights  present  and  the  crowd  of 
common  people  cried  three  times  :  “  WV  approve  !  We  wish 
it  to  be  so  !  ” 

But  these  are  already  nothing  more  than  ceremonies,  cries, 
and  formulas  :  the  succession  to  the  throne  is  henceforth 
assured  to  the  eldest  son  of  the  King. 

Henry  I  died  on  the  4th  August  1060.  Philip  I  mounted 
the  throne  at  the  age  of  eight  years.  The  Regency  was  given 

to  Baldwin,  Count  of  Flanders,  uncle  by  marriage 
Iron  ^  new  King,  whose  aunt,  Adèle,  the  sister 

of  Henry  I,  he  had  married.  For  this  con¬ 
fidential  position  Baldwin  had  been  preferred  to  Robert, 
Duke  of  Burgundy,  the  brother  of  Henry  I,  and  uncle  by  blood 
of  the  young  King. 

78 


THE  ELEVENTH  CENTURY 


It  is  impossible  not  to  pay  a  tribute  of  admiration  to  the 
manner  in  which  Count  Baldwin  of  Flanders  acquitted  himself 
of  the  royal  guardianship.  He  divided  his  time  between  the 
banks  of  the  Seine  and  the  County  of  Flanders — continual 
journeys  which  are  to  last  for  ten  years  ;  and  everywhere 
Baldwin  has  the  young  Philip  to  accompany  him  teaching  him 
his  work  as  King. 

This  Baldwin  of  Flanders  was  a  noble  prince,  pious  and 
liberal,  brave  and  splendid,  large  in  figure  and  of  a  striking 
beauty.  He  defended  the  interests  of  his  royal  pupil  with 
as  much  conscientiousness  as  courage,  and  energetically 
maintained  the  struggle  against  the  unruly  squires  of  the 
royal  domain  whose  power  and  audacity  were  ever  on  the 
increase. 

Here  is  feudalism  vigorously  entrenched  within  its  stone 
keeps.  The  “  mesnie  ”  of  the  barons  is  extended  and  fortified  ; 
their  fortresses,  masterpieces  of  architecture,  with  their  ponds 
covered  with  a  green  carpet  of  conferva,  with  their  thick 
courtaines ,  their  high  towers,  defy  the  armies  of  the  time,  which 
have  not  yet  at  their  disposal  the  machinery  for  effective 
sieges.  And  certain  of  these  lords — proud  of  their  strength 
and  their  impregnable  keeps,  proud  of  their  ancestors  and  by 
reason  of  the  devotion  and  fidelity  of  their  numerous  vassals — 
are  not  afraid  of  braving  the  power  of  the  King.  A  number 
of  them  have  their  keeps  bristling  on  the  borders  of  the  royal 
domain  :  these  are  the  Counts  of  Dammartin  who  commanded 
the  environs  of  Creil,  the  Counts  of  Beaumont-sur-Oise,  the 
Seigneurs  de  Montmorency,  the  Seigneurs  du  Puiset,  the 
Seigneurs  de  Roucy. 

Each  of  these  “  barons,”  sovereign  in  his  territory,  exercises 
there  royal  rights,  holds  Court  and  Council,  presides  over  a 
tribunal,  erects  forked  gibbets  ;  a  veritable  army  follows  his 
standard  ;  he  has  his  own  mint.  Numerous  men-at-arms 
and  young  knights  live  within  the  precincts  of  his  vast  castle, 
where  they  are  trained  under  his  direction  for  the  career  of 
arms.  The  daughters  of  his  vassals  form  the  entourage  of 
the  châtelaine.  And  we  must  be  careful  not  to  see  in  this 
man-at-arms  a  mere  unruly  squire,  a  “  hobereau  ”  greedy  and 
plundering,  even  though  this  very  name  “  hobereau  ”  signifies 

79 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


“  bird  of  prey.”  Our  baron  is  devoted  to  his  44  subjects  ”  ; 
lie  keeps  peace  among  them  ;  he  exposes  his  own  body  and 
possessions  for  their  defence  ;  he  assures  their  existence,  their 
work  ;  he  opens  the  way  to  them  for  fruitful  enterprises.  In 
return,  his  subjects  owe  to  him  services  similar  to  those  which 
he  himself  owes  to  the  King — military  service,  service  at  Court, 
in  council,  and  feudal  aids.  The  vassal  is  bound  equally  to 
watch  over  the  castle  of  his  baron,  to  defend  it  if  it  is  attacked  ; 
this  is  the  duty  of  44  estage.”  And  thanks  to  this  reciprocal 
aid,  when  circumstances  have  been  favourable,  such  a  baron 
as  Eble  de  Roucy  can  conduct  a  whole  expedition  into  Spain. 
44  He  set  out  against  the  Saracens,”  says  Suger,  44  with  an  army 
fit  for  a  King.” 

The  castle  of  the  feudal  baron  is  like  the  royal  Court  on  a 
smaller  scale.  The  same  officers  are  found  there  :  a  seneschal, 
a  marshal,  a  pantler,  and  a  butler,  a  chaplain  who  is  some¬ 
times  called  a  chancellor.  And  we  must  not  think  that  it 
was  the  feudal  lord  who  copied  the  Sovereign  :  it  was  the 
royal  Court  which  took  its  origin  from  the  development  of  the 
feudal  Court. 

Let  us  penetrate  now  into  the  castle  of  one  of  these  barons 
of  the  eleventh  century.  In  the  shadow  of  the  high  tower — 
at  the  summit  of  which  the  sentinel,  to  kill  time,  sings  some 
songs  of  the  watch,  or  plays  on  the  flute,  the  timbrel,  or  the  cornet 
— has  been  built  the  palace,  the  residence  of  the  seigneur. 
There  are  two  principal  apartments  :  the  chamber,  which 
is  reserved  for  him  and  his  family  ;  and  the  hall,  where  meals 
are  taken.  A  part  of  this  latter  room,  at  the  extreme  end,  is 
slightly  raised  like  a  stage,  from  which  a  view  can  be  had  of 
the  whole  apartment  :  it  is  the  44  dais.”  In  the  hall  the  public 
life  is  passed,  the  common  life  of  the  castellany.  Guillaume 
au  Nez  Courbe  has  been  conquered  by  the  Saracens  ;  he  returns 
home  wounded.  His  wife  runs  to  meet  him  in  the  courtyard 
of  the  castle. 

Then  holds  she  her  loved  one  by  his  silken  sleeves 

And  they  mount  up  all  the  marble  steps  ; 

— the  marble  steps  which  lead  to  the  hall  of  the  palace.  The 
castle  is  empty  of  defenders  ;  they  have  been  killed  in  the 
80 


THE  ELEVENTH  CENTURY 


battle  ;  it  was  depleted  of  the  young  knights  who  were  wont 
to  throng  round  their  lord  : 

No  man  was  there  who  service  should  them  do. 

The  Lady  Guiburc  runs  herself  for  water, 

And  after  brings  a  towel  ; 

Then  sat  they  down  at  the  lowest  table, 

For  grief  they  could  not  sit  on  the  dais. 

He  sees  the  benches,  the  couches,  and  the  tables 
Where  his  many  vassals  ( barnages )  were  wont  to  be. 

(It  will  be  noticed  that  the  words  4 4  barnage,”  44  parage,” 
44  lignage,”  44  family,”  are  practically  synonymous.) 

No  one  he  sees  throwing  dice  in  the  hall 
Or  playing  with  checks  and  tablets  ; 

Then  he  grieves  as  a  noble  man  should. 

•  ••••••• 

“  Dame  Guiburc,  you  have  nothing  to  weep, 

You  have  not  lost  your  flesh  and  blood. 

I  must  grieve  and  be  sad 
Who  have  lost  my  noble  kindred. 

Now  shall  I  flee  to  a  foreign  land, 

To  St.  Michael  in  Peril  of  the  Sea, 

Or  to  St.  Peter,  God’s  good  apostle, 

Or  in  a  desert  wood  where  none  shall  find  me. 

There  shall  I  become  a  hermit  of  some  religious  order  ; 

You,  go  make  yourself  a  nun,  and  veil  your  head.” 

“  Sire,”  says  she,  “  this  can  we  soon  enough  do 
When  our  earthly  task  we  have  fulfilled. 

Sir  William,  with  the  will  of  God, 

To-morrow  at  dawn  mount  on  thy  charger. 

Ride  straight  to  Laon, 

To  the  Emperor  (the  King  of  France)  who  lias  always  held  us  dear. 
He  will  come  to  our  aid, 

And  if  he  does  not,  render  to  him  his  fief.” 

( Chanson  de  Guillaume ,  from  the  Legendes  Epiques , 

Jos.  Bédier,  i.  86,  87.) 

A  simple  and  living  picture  of  the  feudal  lordship  in  the 
eleventh  century,  and  of  the  sentiments  which  inspire  its 
inhabitants. 

But  it  was  not  long  before  the  feudal  lords  began  to  suffer 
from  want  of  money.  The  dues  which  they  levied  on  their 
vassals  were  payment  in  kind.  These  were  consumed  like 
the  products  of  their  domains  by  their  family,  their  servants, 

F  81 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


and  their  men-at-arms.  As  trade  and  industry  developed, 
money  acquired  a  greater  value.  It  became  daily  more  difficult 
to  do  without  it,  and  the  feudal  lords  were  short  of  money. 
Hence  the  habits  of  plunder  which  are  to  mark  the  feudal 
system  :  the  same  lord  who  forms  a  model  of  order  and  justice 
within  the  limits  of  his  fief  will  be  transformed  into  a  brigand 
outside — -that  is  to  say,  against  those  who  are  strangers  to  his 
fief. 

!*“  Rigaut,  witffisome  of  his  men,  overran  the  country,  burned, 
destroyed  towersjand  ^mansions,  carried  off  booty  ;  there  was 
not  a  cow,  a  sheep,  a  robe,  a  piece  of  stuff  or  cloth  which  he 
did  not  have  carried  off  to  Plessis.  His  men  were  all  rich  for 
a  long  time  ”  ( Garin  le  Loherain). 

Add  to  all  this  the  armed  struggles  which  were  bound 
continually  to  arise,  from  numerous  causes,  between  the  little 
States  into  which  the  country  was  divided  :  quarrels  of  neigh¬ 
bours,  disputes  about  domains,  love  episodes.  .  .  . 

Two  cocks  were  living  in  peace,  a  hen  came  along.  .  .  . 

The  cocks  are  named  Godefroi  de  Namur  and  Enguerran 
de  Roves  ;  the  daughter  of  the  Count  de  Portian  arrives  on  the 
scene.  “  The  fires  of  war,”  writes  Guibert  de  Nogent,  “  began 
to  kindle  between  the  two  rivals,  with  so  much  fury  that  all 
the  people  of  Enguerran  who  fell  into  the  hands  of  Godefroi 
were  hung  on  forked  gibbets,  or  had  their  eyes  put  out,  or  their 
feet  cut  off.” 

And  so  the  necessity  of  being  put  by  the  ties  of  liegeman 
under  the  protection  of  those  who  were  stronger  went  on 
increasing. 

We  read  in  the  chronicle  of  Lambert  d’Ardres  :  “  Adèle  de 
Selnesse  heard  that  numerous  lords  of  the  land  of  Guines — 
after  Walbert,  Count  of  Ponthieu  and  of  Guines,  had  retired 
from  the  world  to  become  a  monk,  leaving  his  lands  to  heirs 
incapable  of  protecting  them — were  putting  themselves  under 
the  protection  of  other  lords,  or  indeed  of  bishops,  abbots,  or 
provosts,  in  order  to  keep  their  authority  and  to  live  in  peace 
and  tranquillity  under  the  protection  of  others  greater  than 
themselves,  to  whom  they  enfeoffed  their  lands.  Conse¬ 
quently  she  herself  determined  to  place  her  free  lands  in  fief, 
82 


THE  ELEVENTH  CENTURY 


notably  what  she  possessed  at  Poperinghe,  under  the  pro¬ 
tection  of  the  bishop.” 

Thus  we  see  the  necessity  of  the  royal  authority  standing 
out  more  clearly  in  proportion  as  feudal  society  becomes  more 
developed  and  accentuated. 

At  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century  this  authority  is  far 
from  being  able  to  make  itself  prevail  everywhere  without 
opposition.  A  charter  of  Geoffrey,  Bishop  of  Beauvais,  dated 
the  18th  January  1106,  shows  that  the  feudal  robbers  were 
ravaging  so  cruelly  in  the  country  round  Compiègne  that  he 
dispensed  the  Canons  of  St.-Corneille  from  coming  to  the 
diocesan  synod,  on  account  of  the  insecurity  of  the  roads. 

The  numerous  barons,  who  encumber  with  their  towers 
the  royal  domain,  have  become  powerful  not  only  by  their 
impregnable  strongholds  and  their  men-at-arms  :  Suger  speaks 
of  those  barons  to  whom  alliances  with  the  greatest  families 
gave  a  redoubtable  army.  Moreover,  while  the  first  two 
Capetians,  Hugh  and  Robert,  seem  to  have  been  respected  in 
their  domains  and  to  have  moved  about  in  them  freely,  this 
was  not  the  case  with  their  successors,  Henry  I  and  Philip. 

Finally  this  latter,  by  marrying  one  of  his  sons,  Philip,  to 
Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Guy  Trousseau,  lord  of  Mantes  and 
Montlhéry,  managed  to  bring  the  famous  castle  of  Montlhéry 
into  the  royal  family. 

44  Having  received  the  guard  of  the  castle,”  writes  Suger, 
44  Philip  I  and  his  son  Louis  le  Gros  (the  Fat)  were  as  much 
rejoiced  as  if  a  straw  had  been  removed  from  their  eye  or 
barriers  which  had  held  them  imprisoned  had  been  broken 
down.”  The  King,  adds  the  Abbot  of  St.  Denis,  declared  to 
his  son  Louis,  in  our  presence,  how  cruelly  he  had  been  afflicted 
by  the  exertions  the  castle  had  imposed  on  him.  44  Mind,” 
said  he  to  him,  44  mind,  my  son  Louis  !  Watch  well  this 
tower  !  I  have  watched  it  through  the  trouble  it  has  occa¬ 
sioned  me.  From  it  so  many  tricks  and  frauds  have  been 
perpetrated  against  me  that  I  had  never  any  rest  or  peace.  Its 
treasons  made  my  faithful  subjects  unfaithful,  and  more  un¬ 
faithful  those  who  had  already  betrayed  me.  From  far  and 
near  my  enemies  concentrated  there.  Hardly  an  evil  was 
committed  within  my  realm  without  the  consent  or  assistance 

83 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


of  those  who  occupied  it.  As  the  territory  of  Paris  is  bounded 
towards  the  Seine  by  Corbeil,  half-way  to  Montlhéry,  and  to  the 
right  by  Châteaufort,  there  was  such  disorder  between  the 
Parisians  and  the  people  of  Orleans  that  it  was  impossible  to 
go  from  one  to  the  other  without  the  permission  of  my  enemies 
or  under  the  strongest  escort.  But  now  through  this  marriage 
the  barrier  has  fallen  and  joyful  communications  take  place 
between  them.” 

Of  these  feudal  Frenchmen  of  the  eleventh  century  some 
were  destined  to  remarkable  fortune.  A  poor  knight  of  Cou- 
tances,  Tancrède  de  Hauteville,  had  twelve  sons  and  several 
daughters.  Five  of  these  sons,  Guillaume  Bras  de  Fer  (William 
Iron-arm),  Drew,  Omfroi,  Robert  Guiscard,  and  Roger,  may  be 
regarded  as  the  founders  of  the  French  Kingdom  of  the  Two 
Sicilies.  According  to  the  testimony  of  a  Byzantine  princess, 
Anna  Comnenus,  Robert  Guiscard  (the  Prudent)  was  a  big 
man,  with  broad  shoulders,  fair  hair,  ruddy  complexion,  steel 
blue  eyes  “  which  darted  lightning  glances.”  He  left  his 
Normandy,  followed  by  five  horse-soldiers  and  eight  infantry¬ 
men,  crossed  France  and  Italy,  and  came  to  settle  in  Calabria 
on  the  top  of  a  high  mountain.  Thence,  as  a  brigand,  he 
pounced  on  travellers,  destroyed  them,  and  thus  secured  for 
himself,  in  the  simplest  manner  possible,  arms  and  horses. 
But  he  was  good  to  the  poor  and  to  Churchmen  ;  moreover,  the 
monks  of  Monte  Cassino  celebrated  his  “  exploits  ”  which,  too, 
before  long  were  carried  out  on  a  larger  scale.  It  is  a  case  now 
of  castles  which  are  surprised  by  the  bands  of  Robert  Guiscard, 
in  Campania,  in  Calabria,  and  which  thus  become  by  these 
proceedings — rudimentary  enough — the  property  of  the  Norman 
lord,  who  is  still  a  feudal  seigneur  such  as  we  have  described. 

His  family,  his  household,  his  men  bear  him  an  unlimited 
devotion.  He  shows  towards  all  his  companions,  towards  all 
those  who  have  joined  their  fortunes  to  his,  an  incomparable 
devotion  and  justice.  The  Pope,  alarmed  by  the  rapid  progress 
of  this  disturbing  neighbour,  began  by  excommunicating 
him.  Then  he  marched  against  him  at  the  head  of  an  army 
composed  of  Italians  and  Germans  ;  but  after  suffering  defeat 
at  Civitate  (1053),  he  hastened  to  take  his  conqueror  as  an 
ally  in  his  struggle  against  the  Empire. 

84 


THE  ELEVENTH  CENTURY 


Gregory  VII  found  no  helper  against  Henry  IV  more 
reliable  or  more  useful  than  Robert  Guiscard.  Without  him, 
the  Germans  would  doubtless  have  seized  the  capital  of  Christi¬ 
anity.  Robert  received  from  the  Holy  See  the  title  of  Duke  of 
Apulia  and  of  Calabria.  Gregory  VII  thought  of  making  him 
Roman  Emperor  in  order  to  oppose  him  to  Henry  IV  (1080). 
Roger,  the  brother  of  Robert,  had  won  the  title  of  Count  of 
Sicilv.  Between  the  sons  of  the  two  barons  there  broke  out, 
after  the  death  of  their  fathers,  a  struggle  of  rivalry  and  for 
power.  Roger  II,  the  brother  of  Roger  I,  is  to  dispossess 
William,  the  son  of  Robert  Guiscard,  and  the  Sovereign  Pontiff 
will  recognize  him  as  King  of  Sicily,  Calabria,  and  Apulia  ;  and 
the  Norman  Kingdom  of  the  Two  Sicilies  will  be  constituted 
(1130). 

It  is  a  feudal  suzerainty,  in  which  is  exercised  the  patronage 
which  is  its  very  soul,  favourable  to  the  “  subjects  ”  whom  it 
encourages  and  whose  efforts  it  protects.  From  it  rises  in 
Sicily  under  the  shadow  of  the  Norman  standards  a  civilization 
charming  in  its  variety  and  picturesqueness.  Under  the 
suzerainty  of  the  descendants  of  Tancrède  de  Hauteville  and 
of  their  companions,  the  French  genius,  the  Arab  genius,  and 
the  Greek  join  in  a  fruitful  process.  The  Mohammedan 
scholars  teach  in  the  schools  ;  the  “  mires,”  i.e.  the  Jewish 
doctors,  tend  the  knights  ;  money  is  struck  in  Latin,  Greek, 
and  Arabic  type.  An  exquisitely  eclectic  architecture  frames 
Byzantine  and  Arab  themes  in  buildings  of  Roman  or  Gothic 
style  imported  from  France,  as  one  will  see  many  years  later, 
the  themes  of  ancient  art,  revived  by  the  Renaissance,  mingle 
with  the  capricious  fantasies  of  flamboyant  Gothic. 

Thus  the  epic  realized  by  the  sons  of  Tancrède  de  Hauteville 
in  Southern  Italy  seems  like  a  fairy  tale.  It  is  explained  by  the 
force  and  social  energy  of  the  feudal  institutions  described 
above.  The  conquerors  of  the  eleventh  century  carried  them 
in  their  saddle-bags  to  make  them  germinate  and  develop  in 
far-off  lands.  What  formed  the  strength  of  the  feudal  baron 
was  not  the  extent  of  the  domains  over  which  he  ruled,  but  the 
force  of  the  ties  of  affection  and  devotion  which  bound  him 
to  his  men.  In  whatever  place  they  might  find  themselves, 
lords  and  vassals  formed  an  organized  society  which,  trans- 

85 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

planted  from  Normandy  to  Sicily,  preserved  its  force  of  action 
and  expansion. 

But  the  great  example  of  French  expansion  in  the  eleventh 
century  was  the  conquest  of  England  by  William  of  Nor¬ 
mandy. 

William  the  Conqueror  was  the  son  of  the  Duke  of  Nor¬ 
mandy,  Robert  le  Diable,  and  Arlette,  a  woman  of  low  birth. 
He  was  a  big,  surly  fellow,  with  a  large  stomach  and  a  bald 
head  ;  his  face  was  red  and  puffy,  with  little  round  eyes  “  like 
gimlets.”  He  had  an  abrupt,  energetic  manner  and  decided 
movements.  He  had  the  gift  of  commanding  men  and  the 
power  of  organization.  Of  a  shy  temperament,  he  loved 
solitude.  He  had  married  Matilda,  the  daughter  of  Baldwin, 
Count  of  Flanders,  and  never  ceased  to  maintain  with  her  a 
united  household.  He  succeeded  his  father  as  Duke  of  Nor¬ 
mandy  and  forced  the  noblemen  of  the  land  to  respect  his 
power. 

Besides,  this  Norman  nobility  was  distinguished  in  the 
eleventh  century  from  the  rest  of  the  French  nobility,  in  that 
it  was  not  divided  into  a  hierarchy  of  vassals,  composed  of 
rear- vassals,  vavasors,  more  important  vassals,  vassals  of  the 
domain,  and  superior  vassals,  superimposed  one  to  another 
up  to  the  royal  throne  :  the  Dukes  of  Normandy  extended  a 
uniform  power  over  a  single  class  of  noblemen,  equally  spread 
over  the  Duchy.  The  lords  of  Bellème  alone  formed  an  ex¬ 
ception  ;  they  had  vassals  under  their  orders,  and  were  thus 
rendered  almost  independent.  This  social  constitution  was  a 
consequence  of  the  Norman  Conquest,  which  had  triumphed 
and  organized  itself  in  the  country  by  imposing  on  the  popula¬ 
tion  the  government  of  a  conquering  aristocracy  ;  while  in  the 
other  provinces  of  France  the  aristocracy  issuing  from  the 
family,  described  above,  had  been  formed  slowly,  had  grown 
progressively,  by  a  formative  process,  slow,  complicated,  and 
diverse. 

In  Normandy,  following  on  the  triumphant  and  organized 
invasion,  the  lords  gave  to  the  country  a  monotonous  organiza¬ 
tion,  for  the  movement  is  made  from  above,  by  authority  ; 
while  in  the  rest  of  France  the  movement  was  made  from 
below  with  the  diversity  of  all  spontaneous  action,  and  seemed 
86 


THE  ELEVENTH  CENTURY 


to  spring  from  the  soil,  adapting  itself  in  different  places,  to 
the  infinitely  varied  and  complex  circumstances  of  local  life. 
Viollet-le-Duc  makes  a  pregnant  observation  when  he  writes  : 
“  The  Norman  castle,  at  the  beginning  of  the  feudal  period,  is 
always  connected  with  a  system  of  territorial  defence,  while 
the  French  castle  is  the  dwelling  of  the  chief  of  a  band,  isolated, 
defending  his  own  domain,  and  taking  no  count  of  the  general 
defence  of  the  land.” 

This  observation  finds  a  complement  in  this  assertion  of 
the  Council  of  Lillebonne  (1080)  :  “  It  is  forbidden  in  Normandy 
to  make  a  ditch  so  deep  that  a  handful  of  soil  cannot  be  thrown 
from  the  bottom  to  the  bank  without  standing  on  anything  ; 
it  is  forbidden  to  set  up  a  palisade  except  to  mark  a  boundary, 
or  one  furnished  with  works  defending  the  approach  ;  it  is 
forbidden  to  construct  a  fastness  on  any  rock  or  island  ;  or  to 
build  a  fortress.”  We  are  far  from  the  castles  of  Coucy  and 
Montlhéry. 

This  organization  of  the  Norman  nobility  ensured  that 
the  Duke  of  Normandy  had  all  his  subjects  well  in  hand  ;  this 
rendered  easier  the  conquest  of  England.  The  King  of  England, 
Edward  the  Confessor,  conquered  by  the  Danes,  had  taken 
refuge  at  Rouen,  whence,  with  the  help  of  the  Normans,  he 
had  organized  an  expedition  which  had  enabled  him  to  conquer 
them  in  his  turn  (1042).  He  died  on  the  5th  January  1066, 
and  one  of  the  chief  English  nobles,  Duke  Harold — the  brother- 
in-law  of  King  Edward,  who  had  married  his  sister — the  son 
of  Godwin,  ealdorman  of  Wessex,  succeeded  him  on  the  throne. 

It  was  then  that  Duke  William  declared  that  King  Edward 
had  left  him  his  kingdom  by  will,  and  that  Harold  himself 
had  promised  to  recognize  him  as  King  of  Great  Britain, 
pf  William  gathered  at  Lillebonne  an  army  chiefly  composed 
of  his  Norman  vassals,  but  in  which  were  also  knights  from  the 
most  diverse  parts  of  France,  of  the  north  at  least,  from  Brittany, 
the  Ile-de-France,  Flanders,  Picardy,  Maine,  and  Anjou,  an 
army  of  fifty  thousand  men.  The  Normans  and  their  auxiliaries 
set  out  from  the  mouth  of  the  Dive  on  the  28th  September 
1066.  On  the  29th,  at  nine  o’clock  in  the  morning,  the  white 
sails  arrived  at  Pevensey.  The  decisive  encounter  took 
place  at  Senlac,  near  Hastings,  on  the  16th  October  1066  The 

87 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Normans,  who  had  entered  the  fight  to  the  strains  of  the  Chanson 
de  Roland,  won  a  complete  victory,  due  to  the  overwhelming 
superiority  of  the  feudal  cavalry,  barded  with  iron,  against 
the  Anglo-Saxon  footmen  armed  with  axe  and  bow,  as  one 
sees  them  on  the  famous  Bayeux  tapestry.  Harold  and  his 
brothers  were  killed.  With  a  remarkable  rapidity  of  decision 
William  marched  straight  upon  London  and  had  himself 
crowned  by  the  Archbishop  of  York  at  Westminster,  under 
the  eyes  of  the  stupefied  citizens. 

With  a  like  promptitude  William  established  order  in  the 
country,  so  that  in  the  March  of  the  following  year  he  was 
able  to  return  to  Normandy.  He  had  granted  lands  to  his 
companions  whom  he  attached  to  himself  after  the  feudal 
model.  He  and  his  auxiliaries  introduced  into  England  the 
use  and  customs  of  French  feudalism,  the  French  language, 
the  tastes,  the  amusements,  and  the  literature  of  that  country. 
The  suzerainty  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  territories  was  divided 
among  the  members  of  a  French  aristocracy,  and  everywhere 
within  them  were  seen  building  fortresses,  seigniorial  residences, 
after  the  fashion  prevailing  across  the  Channel.  England  is 
to  become  for  several  centuries  a  centre  of  French  culture  by 
the  same  title  as  the  Ile-de-France.  The  oldest  manuscripts 
of  our  chansons  de  geste  are  of  English  origin  and  are  in  the 
libraries  of  London  and  Oxford.  Then  one  will  see  the  language, 
the  customs,  the  architecture  brought  from  France,  shape 
itself  in  Great  Britain  by  an  intelligent  adaptation  to  the 
taste  and  temperament  of  the  English,  so  as  to  form  a  civiliza¬ 
tion,  impregnated  with  the  French  influence,  but  which  in  its 
principal  features  appears  fundamentally  original. 

And  the  organization  of  the  nobility  of  Great  Britain 
becomes  the  replica  of  the  organization  which  the  Norman 
nobility  had  given  itself  in  imitation  of  that  of  the  Ile-de- 
France,  which  we  have  just  described,  but  without  those  super¬ 
positions  and  ranking  of  fiefs  before  mentioned.  The  English 
aristocracy  will  be,  like  the  Norman  aristocracy,  a  rural 
nobility,  in  direct  contact  with  the  people,  and  itself  immediately 
under  the  hand  of  the  King.  This  difference  between  the 
constitution  of  the  English  nobility  and  that  of  the  French 
nobility,  properly  so  called,  had  many  consequences  ;  notably 
88 


THE  ELEVENTH  CENTURY 


it  ensured  that,  from  the  first  day,  the  new  King  of  England 
found  himself  stronger  in  his  country  than  the  King  of  France 
would  be  in  his  two  centuries  later. 

In  France,  the  King  is  brought  up  against  the  hierarchy 
and  grouping  of  the  fiefs  which  come  at  length  to  form  great 
States  within  his  kingdom.  In  England  the  King  commands 
immediately  all  the  fiefs  ;  and  we  have  to  repeat  what  we  have 
just  said  of  the  Norman  Conquest  :  in  France  the  work  of 
social  organization  is  made  spontaneously,  born  of  a  popular 
movement  ;  in  England  it  is  made  administratively  by  the 
energy  of  a  conqueror. 

One  can  imagine  what  follows.  The  King  of  England  was 
the  Duke  of  Normandy,  and  the  similarity  of  language,  tastes, 
and  customs  was  to  render  more  redoubtable  still  the  continual 
incursions,  which  the  English  monarchs — for  some  centuries 
yet  much  more  French  than  English — were  to  be  encouraged 
to  pursue  into  the  very  heart  of  our  country.  In  England 
the  conquerors  found  themselves  in  France,  and  in  France 
they  found  themselves  at  home. 

It  has  been  made  a  reproach  to  Philip  I  that  he  allowed 
the  union  of  Normandy  and  England  to  come  about  ;  people 
forget  that,  in  1066,  he  was  a  child  of  fourteen,  under  the 
guardianship  of  his  uncle,  Count  Baldwin  of  Flanders,  and  that 
the  latter,  in  consequence  of  the  marriage  of  his  daughter 
Matilda  with  the  Conqueror,  a  most  happy  union,  would  not 
care  to  thwart  his  son-in-law. 

At  least  from  the  time  he  had  taken  in  hand  the  direction 
of  his  government,  when  he  had  attained  his  majority,  Philip  I 
appreciated  the  menace  which  the  union  of  Normandy  and  Great 
Britain  formed  for  the  French  Kingdom,  and  he  supported 
Robert  Short  Hose,  the  son  of  the  Conqueror,  in  his  struggle 
against  his  father.  He  had,  however,  failed  in  his  efforts 
when  William  died  in  Normandy  on  the  9th  September  1087. 

William  had  divided  his  domains  between  his  two  eldest 
sons,  giving  Normandy  to  the  elder,  Robert  Short  Hose,  and 
the  kingdom  of  England  to  the  second,  William  the  Red.  A 
third,  Henry,  received  nothing,  and  yet  it  was  he  who  was 
destined  to  re-establish  in  his  own  hands  the  redoubtable 
union  of  Normandy  and  Great  Britain.  After  having  succeeded 

89 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


his  brother  William  the  Red  on  the  English  throne,  he  conquered 
Robert  Short  Hose  at  the  battle  of  Tenchebrai  (28th  September 
1106)  and  took  him  prisoner.  Thus  Henry  replaced  on  his 
own  head  the  double  crown  of  the  Conqueror,  and  he  followed 
up  his  work  by  destroying  the  castles  raised  in  Normandy  since 
the  death  of  his  father. 

P  William  the  Conqueror  had  resolutely  resisted  the  injunctions 
of  the  Holy  See  ordering  him  to  dissolve  on  the  ground  of 
relationship  his  marriage  with  Matilda,  daughter  of  Baldwin 
of  Flanders  ;  Philip  I  likewise  resisted  the  commands  of  the 
Sovereign  Pontiffs  enjoining  him  to  repudiate  Bertrade. 

“  In  1092,”  writes  Ordericus",Vitalis,  44  a  scandal  occurred 
which  disturbed  the  kingdom  Bertrade  de  Montfort,  the 
Countess  of  Anjou,  was  afraid  fthat  her  husband  Foulque  le 
Réchin — which  means  restive, f  headstrong — would  do  with 
her  as  he  had  done  with  two  other  wives  and  repudiate  her 
in  her  turn.  Confident  in  her  noble  blood  and  in  her  beauty, 
she  sent  a  man  whom  she  trusted  to  Philip,  King  of  the  French, 
to  disclose  to  him  the  passion  of  her  heart.  The  King  was 
not  insensible  to  this  declaration,  and  when  this  lascivious 
woman  had  abandoned  her  husband  he  gladly  received  her 
in  France.  He  repudiated  his  own  wife,  the  noble  and 
virtuous  Queen  Berthe,  the  daughter  of  Florence,  Count  of 
Holland,  who  had  borne  him  Louis  and  Constance,  and  married 
Bertrade,  whom  Foulque,  the  Count  of  Anjou,  had  had  to 
wife  for  nearly  four  years.”  Is  this  adventure  related  accu¬ 
rately  by  our  chronicler  ?  According  to  some  other  authors 
the  Countess  of  Anjou  was  carried  off  by  Philip  I  on  the  15th 
May  1092.  However  this  may  be,  Philip  repudiated  Berthe 
from  futile  motives,  and  placed  on  the  throne  the  wife  of  the 
Count  of  Anjou. 

He  had  been  overcome  with  a  passion  for  her  which  was 
not  to  grow  weaker.  Queen  Berthe  was  relegated  to  Montreuil- 
sur-Mer.  If  we  can  believe  William  of  Malmesbury,  Philip 
found  Berthe  too  fat  and  had  developed  a  feeling  of  disgust 
for  her,  more  especially  as  he  was  himself  bulky,  big,  heavy, 
and  massive,  such  as  we  have  seen  his  grandfather,  Robert 
the  Pious,  and  as  we  shall  see  his  son,  Louis  VI.  He  was 
a  glutton  and  ate  enormously,  and  towards  the  end  of  his 
90 


THE  ELEVENTH  CENTURY 

life  he  was  so  overwhelmed  with  fat  that  he  could  hardly 
move. 

At  first  Foulque  le  Réehin,  abandoned  by  his  wife,  stormed 
and  thundered.  Afterwards  he  calmed  down,  through  the 
efforts  of  Bertrade  herself,  if  we  can  believe  Ordericus  Vitalis  : 

44  Between  these  two  powerful  rivals  broke  out  a  storm  of 
threats,  but  the  woman,  clever  and  subtle,  reconciled  them  and 
made  peace  between  them  so  effectively  that  they  met  together 
at  a  splendid  feast  prepared  by  her.”  In  October  1106  Philip 
and  Bertrade  will  come  to  Angers,  where  Foulque  will  receive 
them  with  honour.  But  the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  the  great 
Urban  II,  showed  himself  less  amenable  than  the  husband. 
Supported  by  his  legate  in  France,  Hugh  of  Die,  and  by  several 
bishops  of  the  country,  notably  by  Ive  de  Chartres,  he  had 
called  on  Philip  to  break  his  union  with  Bertrade,  and  on  the 
refusal  of  the  King,  he  had  excommunicated  him  (Council  of 
Autun,  16th  October  1094,  held  by  the  legate,  Hugh  of  Die). 
The  ceremony  of  the  Interdict  was  renewed  by  Urban  himself 
at  the  Council  of  Clermont  (18th  November  1095).  But  Philip 
did  not  give  in.  Bertrade  continued  to  be  treated  as  Queen, 
and  the  new  Pope,  Pascal  II,  to  close  his  eyes  to  it.  He  was 
engaged  in  the  gravest  struggles  with  Germany  ;  driven  out 
of  Italy  he  seeks  a  refuge  in  France.  The  reconciliation  of 
Philip  I  and  the  Holy  See  is  sealed  in  1106.  The  King  obtains 
absolution  from  the  Pope,  and  we  shall  see  Bertrade  seated 
beside  him  on  the  throne  until  the  death  of  the  King  (July 
1108)  ;  44  after  which,”  says  William  of  Malmesbury,  44  Ber¬ 
trade,  still  young  and  beautiful,  took  the  veil  in  the  Abbey  of 
Fontrevault,  always  charming  to  men,  pleasing  to  God,  and 
like  an  angel.” 

But  the  episode  of  his  love  affairs  with  Bertrade  is  only  a 
detail  of  the  struggle  which  Philip  maintained  against  the  Holy 
See  :  the  first  act  in  the  long  conflict  to  which,  two  centuries 
later,  Philip  the  Fair  was  to  impose  so  vigorous  a  denouement. 

Since  the  Council  of  Verzy,  held  under  Hugh  Capet  (991), 
the  French  bishops  had  shown  a  certain  independence  towards 
The  the  Holy  See,  and  from  that  time  the  Sovereign 

Investitures.  Pontiffs  had  never  ceased  to  multiply  their  efforts 
to  regain  complete  authority  over  the  French  clergy  ;  a  policy 

91 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


similar  to  that  which  they  put  into  practice  with  regard  to  the 
German  clergy.  From  this  is  to  arise  the  great  Investiture  Contest 
between  the  papal  power  on  one  side  and  the  royal  and  imperial 
power  on  the  other.  In  France,  as  we  have  said,  the  Popes 
had  at  their  disposal  two  powerful  means  of  action  :  the  legates 
and  the  religious  orders  ;  while  the  episcopate  inclined  to  favour 
the  royal  power.  The  French  bishops  regarded  the  King  as 
their  head,  at  least  within  the  kingdom.  The  permanent 
legates  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiffs,  especially  when  they  were 
fine  men  like  Hugh  of  Die,  Archbishop  of  Lyons,  tended  to 
deprive  the  King  of  his  authority  over  the  clergy.  (Lyons 
was  not  at  this  time  part  of  the  French  kingdom.)  Philip  I 
claimed  that  it  was  only  with  his  permission  and  in  virtue  of 
a  royal  delegation  that  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  could  judge  a 
matter,  even  of  an  ecclesiastical  character,  from  the  moment 
that  the  interests  of  the  kingdom  were  involved  ;  while  the 
Popes  claimed  independent  power  in  religious  matters  every¬ 
where. 

As  to  the  bishops,  if  they  could  be  elected  by  the  clergy 
and  the  people,  or  by  the  clergy  alone,  then  installed  and 
consecrated  by  the  Pope,  they  could  only  begin  to  exercise 
their  functions  after  having  received  the  royal  investiture  ; 
and  this  seemed  the  more  just  as  the  bishops  formed  one  of 
the  cogs  in  the  feudal  system  and  exercised  temporal,  political, 
even  military  powers,  and  these  of  the  most  important  char¬ 
acter.  It  is  true  that  the  theory  of  the  French  kings,  as  well 
as  that  of  the  German  emperors,  presented  one  grave  in¬ 
convenience,  simony.  The  sovereigns,  careful  of  the  material 
interests  of  which  they  had  charge,  might  prove  too  readily 
inclined  to  give  their  investiture  for  financial  considerations 
and  to  the  highest  bidder.  Ive  de  Chartres  recounts  to  the 
legate,  Hugh  of  Die,  the  adventure  of  the  Abbot  of  Bourgeuil, 
who  presents  himself  to  Philip  I  with  his  hands  full  of  gold  to 
receive  from  him  the  bishopric  of  Orleans  which  Bertrade  has 
promised  him  : 

“  Have  patience,  the  King  says  to  him,  until  I  have  had 
enough  profit  out  of  your  rival  (who  had  already  paid  out  a 
large  sum)  ;  afterwards  you  shall  have  him  deposed  as  a 
simoniac,  and  I  will  give  you  satisfaction  in  your  turn.” 

92 


THE  ELEVENTH  CENTURY 


In  1075,  Gregory  VII  had  issued  the  famous  decree  which 
forbade  the  bishops  to  receive  lay  investiture.  We  know  what 
a  stir  it  made,  and  still  more  in  Germany  than  in  France. 
The  princes  of  the  Holy  Empire  said  : 

44  The  consent  of  the  Emperor  ought  to  precede  the  election 
which  will  take  place  afterwards  canonically  and  without 
simony,  after  which  the  newly  elected  person  will  go  to  the 
Emperor  to  receive  from  him  the  investiture  with  the  ring  and 
the  cross.” 

The  conflict  is  set  forth  in  lively  fashion  by  the  Abbot 
Suger  when  he  describes  the  interview  between  Pope  Paschal  II 
and  the  envoys  of  Henry  V,  the  German  Emperor,  at  Châlons- 
sur-Marne,  in  May  1107.  These  envoys  were  the  Archbishop  of 
Trêves,  the  Bishop  of  Halberstadt,  the  Bishop  of  Munster,  and 
a  certain  number  of  burgraves  in  armour  headed  by  Guelf  II, 
the  Duke  of  Bavaria,  an  enormous  man  of  redoubtable  appear¬ 
ance,  and  a  great  shouter.  These  envoys  came  with  great 
pomp,  mounted  on  enormous  caparisoned  horses.  They  had 
a  severe  and  haughty  air,  and  seemed  to  have  come  to  sow 
terror  rather  than  arguments.  Only  the  Archbishop  of  Trêves 
showed  himself  courteous  and  pleasant,  fluent  and  wise,  and 
able  to  speak  French  easily.  In  able  style  he  expounded  to  the 
Pope  the  claims  of  the  Emperor.  This,  according  to  him,  was 
the  right  procedure  in  the  election  of  bishops  or  abbots  :  the 
election  made  by  the  clergy  ought  to  be  brought  to  the  know¬ 
ledge  of  the  Emperor  before  being  made  public,  in  order  to 
ensure  that  the  candidate  shall  be  agreeable  to  him  ;  after  this 
the  election  should  be  proclaimed  in  a  general  assembly  as 
having  been  made  at  the  request  of  the  people,  through  the 
offices  of  the  clergy,  and  with  the  consent  of  the  Emperor. 
Finally,  the  person  elected  thus  freely  and  without  simony 
should  present  himself  before  the  Emperor  to  swear  fidelity 
to  him  and  to  receive  from  him  investiture  with  the  cross  and 
the  ring.  44  And  that  is  just,”  said  the  Germans.  44  No  one 
could  be  admitted  to  enjoy,  without  imperial  investiture, 
cities,  castles,  lands,  and  dues  within  the  Empire.”  But  the 
Pope  replied  through  the  Bishop  of  Plaisance,  that  the  Church, 
freed  by  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  could  not  go  back  again 
into  slavery,  and  that  it  belonged  only  to  the  Altar  to  grant 

93 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


the  investiture  with  cross  and  ring,  and  not  to  the  lay  power, 
whose  hands  the  sword  had  filled  with  blood. 

At  these  words  the  representatives  of  Henry  V  protested  ; 
they  railed  4 4  in  Teutonic  style,”  says  Suger,  and  made  a  great 
uproar.  44  This  is  not  the  place  to  finish  this  quarrel,”  they 
cried,  44  but  at  Rome,  where  it  will  be  settled  at  the  point  of  our 
swords.” 

The  Kings  of  France  likewise  claimed  that  it  was  their  right 
to  grant  investiture  with  the  cross,  before  any  consecration. 

The  eleventh  century  saw  a  prodigious  increase  of  the 
Monastic  Orders  in  France.  Of  them  all,  Cluny  experienced 
an  unprecedented  prosperity.  We  have  spoken  of  the  splendid 
character  of  the  men  who  directed  it. 

Cluny  shone  by  the  number  of  its  monks  and  of  the  establish¬ 
ments  which  were  founded  under  its  patronage  ;  it  shone  too 
by  the  wealth  of  its  abbeys,  by  the  excellence  of  its  literary  and 
artistic  culture,  by  the  development  and  perfection  of  its  agri¬ 
culture,  and  it  formed  thus  in  France,  in  the  course  of  the 
eleventh  century,  a  real  power,  a  fruitful  source  of  life,  progress, 
and  prosperity.  It  was  during  the  last  quarter  of  the  eleventh 
century,  about  the  year  1088,  that  the  reconstruction  of  the 
Abbey  of  Cluny  itself  was  begun,  a  whole  town  of  stone,  domi¬ 
nated  by  towers  and  steeples,  in  the  finest  Romanesque  style, 
one  of  the  most  imposing  monuments  that  have  ever  been. 

New  Orders  are  founded  :  the  Cistercian  Order,  the  Order 
of  Grandmont,  the  Order  of  Fontrevault. 

Popes  Urban  II  and  Paschal  II  proclaimed  that  Cluny  was 
directly  dependent  on  the  Holy  See  ;  this  meant  the  with¬ 
drawal  of  numerous  rich  and  populous  monasteries  from  the 
authority  of  the  diocesan  bishops,  and,  therefore,  from  the 
royal  authority.  This  fashion  of  making  religious  establish¬ 
ments  depend  directly  on  the  Roman  Court  was  called  44  ex¬ 
emption  ”  ;  they  were  exempt  from  episcopal  authority. 
Philip  I  tried  to  meet  exemption  by  immunity  :  a  privilege 
that  the  Kings  could  accord  to  such  or  such  an  abbey,  in  order 
to  keep  it  under  his  influence,  by  exempting  it  from  certain 
royal  rights,  in  particular  the  rights  of  justice  and  staying 
within  their  domains,  military  service,  and  of  certain  rents  or 
dues  ;  but  the  Kings  never,  or  rarely,  went  as  far  as  total 
04 


THE  ELEVENTH  CENTURY 


immunity,  wishing  to  preserve  rights  over  the  administration 
of  the  abbey  while  attaching  the  monks  to  them  by  their 
favours. 

One  sees  at  a  glance  the  double  current  which  divides  the 
French  Church  :  the  Holy  See  is  trying  to  draw  it  entirely 
to  itself,  by  the  efforts  of  the  permanent  legates  established 
in  France,  where  they  convene  councils  and  appear  continually 
armed  with  the  thunders  of  excommunication  ;  by  its  theory 
of  investitures,  which  would  deprive  the  King  of  all  influence 
over  elections  ;  finally  by  the  development  of  the  religious 
orders  which,  by  means  of  exemption,  would  depend  directly 
on  the  Roman  Court,  without  passing  even  by  the  episcopate  ; 
on  the  other  hand,  the  royal  power,  which  is  itself  an  authority 
of  ecclesiastical  character,  attempts  to  keep  its  episcopate 
under  its  influence,  and  with  the  more  care  as  its  prelates  are 
not  only  ecclesiastical  dignitaries,  but  feudal  lords  disposing 
of  a  secular  and  very  real  material  power,  in  the  same  way  as 
it  tries  to  maintain  its  administrative  and  judicial  powers  over 
the  abbeys.  These  political  matters  are  reduplicated  by 
financial  problems  :  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  did  not  give  these 
exemptions  without  payments  profiting  the  Roman  Court. 

And  one  understands  now  what  will  be  the  sentiments  of 
the  French  episcopate.  For,  in  the  final  account,  this  policy 
of  the  Roman  Court  in  France,  this  action  of  the  papal  legates, 
this  exalting  of  the  monastic  orders  by  44  exemption,”  is  found 
to  be  directed  against  the  episcopate  ;  at  least  it  is  the  episco¬ 
pate  which  in  the  end  pays  the  expenses  of  the  contest,  since 
the  policy  followed  by  the  Holy  See  tended  to  withdraw  a 
section  of  the  clergy,  the  richest  and  most  influential,  from  its 
authority. 

The  Roman  policy  tends  to  oppose  to  the  bishops  more 
independent  rivals,  in  the  person  of  the  abbots  of  the  great 
monasteries.  On  his  elevation  to  the  Papacy  Urban  II  granted 
to  Abbot  Hugh  of  Cluny  the  use  of  the  mitre,  the  dalmatic, 
gloves  and  sandals.  The  French  bishops  never  ceased  as  a  body 
to  show  themselves  hostile  to  the  papal  legates,  who  were, 
moreover,  generally  hostile  to  the  bishops.  Thus  we  under¬ 
stand  why  in  the  struggle  for  power  which  was  maintained, 
practically  without  truce,  from  the  time  of  Hugh  Capet  to 

95 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Francis  I,  between  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  and  the  King  of 
France,  the  bishops  were  generally  in  favour  of  the  King. 

However,  towards  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Philip  I,  there 
was  a  compromise  between  the  two  rival  powers  in  the  matter 
of  the  Investiture  quarrel.  It  was  published  at  the  Council 
of  Troyes  (May  1107).  The  theory  of  Ive  de  Chartres,  who  had 
never  ceased  to  plead  for  conciliation,  was  admitted.  Assuredly, 
a  prelate  is  forbidden  to  receive  investiture  from  the  hands 
of  a  layman  ;  but  on  the  other  hand  an  ecclesiastical  elec¬ 
tion  cannot  dispense  with  the  royal  approval.  The  Sovereign 
Pontiff,  to  whom  the  King’s  help  was  necessary  in  his  struggle 
against  the  Empire,  had  yielded  on  the  main  point  ;  and 
Philip  I,  to  whom  the  love  of  Bertrade  de  Montfort  seemed  not 
less  necessary,  had  yielded  in  the  matter  of  form. 

The  policy  of  Philip  I  towards  the  Papal  Court  was  wanting, 
then,  neither  in  firmness  nor  ability  ;  and  the  King,  to  whom 
history  generally  shows  itself  so  severe,  appears  to  have  evinced 
a  strong  will  and  a  clear  sense  of  duty. 

He  realized  the  importance  of  strengthening  his  power,  his 
authority  over  the  royal  domain,  in  what  we  call  the  Ile-de- 
France,  and,  energetically  seconded  towards  the  end  of  his 
reign  by  his  son  Louis  Thibaud — soon  known  as  Louis  le  Gros 
— he  never  ceased  to  struggle  against  the  rebellious  lords  who 
encumbered  his  territory  with  their  stubborn  castles.  He 
takes  Corbie  and  annexes  it  to  the  royal  domain  ;  in  1107  he 
grants  privileges  to  the  merchants  who  frequent  its  markets, 
which  become  flourishing.  At  the  death  of  the  Count  of 
Vermandois  he  takes  possession  of  part  of  his  fief  ;  next  it  is 
the  Vexin,  which  he  invades  after  Count  Simon  de  Valois  has 
withdrawn  into  a  monastery  ;  Château-Landon  and  le  Gâtinais 
are  seized  in  their  turn,  and  finally  the  town  of  Bourges  and 
the  adjacent  territory.  And  these  conquests  immediately  ad¬ 
joining  his  domain  are  at  once  organized  and  put  in  a  state 
of  defence  by  the  construction  of  fortresses. 

If  we  consider  the  internal  administration  of  the  palace, 
we  notice  under  Philip  I  an  important  change.  The  administra¬ 
tion  of  justice  passes  from  that  mass  of  men,  floating  and  vari¬ 
able,  who  formed  the  Court — and  which  included  generally  the 
optimales,  the  faithful  subjects  passing  by  or  staying  with  the 
96 


THE  ELEVENTH  CENTURY 


monarch — into  the  hands  of  officers  residing  with  the  King  and 
composing  44  the  palace  ”  proper.  And  these  members  of  the 
Palace,  in  specializing  their  functions,  come  to  form,  some  the 
Royal  Council,  some  the  Parlement ,  and  others  the  Chambre  des 
Comptes. 

In  the  local  administration  the  Provosts  make  their  appear¬ 
ance.  Their  functions  consist  of  administering  justice  in  the 
absence  of  the  King  ;  they  are  moreover  commissioned  to 
receive  the  different  dues  from  the  domain.  They  are  found  at 
Paris,  Sens,  Etampes,  Poissy,  Mantes,  Senlis,  and  Bourges  ; 
perhaps  also  at  Pithiviers  and  Compiègne.  Under  the  orders 
of  the  Provosts  are  placed  surveyors  {vicar ii),  who  serve  as  their 
secretaries  and  support  them  in  their  judicial  functions. 

It  has  been  thought  that  a  weakening  was  observable  in 
the  activity  of  Philip  I  from  the  time  of  his  marriage  with 
Bertrade  de  Montfort.  Her  first  husband,  already,  had  found 
in  Bertrade  a  very  absorbing  wife.  44  She  had  made  him 
effeminate,”  says  Suger  ;  44  seated  on  the  stool  on  which  her 
little  feet  rested,  he  remained  there  fascinated  by  her  charms.” 
Another  Circe,  she  appears  to  have  44  softened  ”  Philip  I  in 
the  same  way.  All  for  love  and  absorbed  in  the  eyes  of  his 
wife,  he  no  longer  concerned  himself  with  public  affairs  ;  this 
is  at  least  what  the  Abbot  of  St.  Denis  affirms.  Towards  1099 
he  had  associated  with  himself  on  the  throne  his  son  Louis 
(Louis  le  Gros),  who  immediately  gave  himself  to  the  task  with 
youthful  ardour. 

Philip  I  made  a  very  edifying  end,  probably  at  the  Château 
de  Melun  on  the  29th  or  30th  July  1180. 

Sources. — Lettres  de  Gerbert,  983-97,  ed.  J.  Havet,  1889  ;  Viet.  Mortet, 
Recueil  de  textes  relatifs  à  V histoire  de  V architecture  (XP-XIP  Siècles),  1911  ; 
Adémar  de  Chabanne,  ed.  Chavanon,  1897  ;  Raoul  Glabre ,  ed.  Prou, 
1886  ;  Guibert  de  Nogent,  ed.  Bourgin,  1907  ;  Chron.  de  Richer,  ed.  Waitz, 
SS.  rerum  germ,  in  usum  scholarum ,  1877  ;  Ordericus  Vitalis,  Historia 
ecclesiastica,  ed.  Le  Prévost,  1840-55,  5  vols.  ;  Chron.  de  Helgaud,  ed. 
Guizot,  1824. 

Historical  Works. — Jacq.  Flach,  Les  Origines  de  Vanc.  Fr.,  1886- 
1917,  4  vols.  ;  Pfister,  Etudes  sur  le  règne  de  Robert  le  Pieux,  1885  ;  Augustin 
Fliche,  Le  Règne  de  Philippe  1er,  1912  ;  Ach.  Luchaire,  Louis  VI  le 
Gros,  1890  ;  by  the  same  author,  Hist,  des  institutions  monarchiques  sous 
les  premiers  Capétiens,  1883,  2  vols.  ;  by  the  same,  Les  Premiers  Capétiens, 

G  97 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


in  the  Histoire  de  France,  edited  by  Lavisse,  ii.  1901  ;  A.  Freeman,  The 
History  of  the  Norman  Conquest,  1871,  4  vols.  ;  Imbart  de  la  Tour,  Les 
Elections  épiscopales  dans  V église  de  France ,  1891  ;  Curschmann,  Hungers- 
nôte  im  Mittelalter ,  1900  ;  L.  Halphen,  Le  Comté  d'Anjou  au  XIe  Siècle, 
1906  ;  L.  Reynaud,  Les  Origines  de  l'influence  franç.  en  Allemagne,  1913  ; 
D.  Augustin  Gatard,  La  Musique  grégorienne  (1913)  ;  J.  Combarieu, 
Histoire  de  la  musique,  1918-19,  3  vols. 


98 


CHAPTER  V 


THE  CRUSADES 

Pilgrimages  to  the  Holy  Land  in  the  eleventh  century.  Saracen 
invasions  in  Spain.  The  military  nobility  in  France.  The 
famine  of  1095.  Urban  II  at  the  Council  of  Clermont.  Peter 
the  Hermit.  The  Crusade  of  Poor  Folk.  The  Knights’  Crusade. 

Its  leader,  the  Bishop  of  Puy.  Adhémar  of  Monteil.  The 
capture  of  Nicæa  (19th  June  1097).  Victory  of  Dorylæum  (1st 
July).  Siege  of  Antioch  (20th  October  to  3rd  June  1098).  The 
finding  of  the  Holy  Lance.  Capture  of  Jerusalem  (15th  July 
1099).  Godfrey  de  Bouillon.  Conquest  of  the  Holy  Land  and 
its  organization  by  the  Crusaders.  Consequences  of  the  Crusades 

in  the  West. 

DURING  the  reign  of  Philip  I  the  great  movement  of 
the  Crusades  began.  The  King  of  France  was  under 
sentence  of  excommunication,  as  were  his  neighbours, 
William  the  Conqueror,  King  of  England,  and  the  German 
Emperor  Henry  IV  ;  none  of  the  three  princes  could  therefore 
take  part  in  it. 

Since  the  tenth  century,  pilgrims  from  the  West  had  begun 
to  visit  the  Holy  Places  in  Asia  Minor,  the  cradle  of  Christianity. 
These  journeys  became  more  numerous  through  the  conver¬ 
sion  of  Saint  Stephen,  King  of  Hungary  (979-1038),  which 
opened  to  the  East  the  way  of  the  Danube.  In  1035  Robert  le 
Diable,  Duke  of  Normandy,  set  out  for  Palestine  with  a  great 
number  of  his  subjects.  The  44  journey  ”  of  1063  numbered 
some  thousands  of  pilgrims. 

At  Jerusalem  there  dwelt  a  quite  numerous  Christian 
population,  in  a  quarter  of  the  city  surrounded  by  walls.  There 
were  to  be  seen  there  convents  of  men  and  of  women  founded 
by  Saint  Stephen.  Several  witnesses  attest  the  good  state  of 
the  hospitals  and  churches  then  possessed  in  the  town  by 
the  Christians.  But  towards  the  last  quarter  of  the  eleventh 

99 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


century  the  power  over  the  Holy  Places  changed  hands.  The 
Fatimite  Caliphs  of  Cairo,  kindly  and  humane,  were  driven 
away  by  the  Caliphs  of  Bagdad,  the  Seljuks.  In  1070 
Jerusalem  was  taken  by  Ansiz-ibn  Abik.  In  1084  Antioch, 
become  Christian  again  since  Nicephoras  Phocas,  fell  in  its 
turn  into  the  power  of  the  Turks. 

A  new  régime,  intolerant  and  hard,  was  to  weigh  on  these 
lands  :  and  the  moving  tales  of  the  pilgrims  were  to  carry  back 
echoes  of  it  on  their  return.  Many  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem 
and  Antioch,  exiled  from  their  dwellings,  flocked  back  to  the 
West.  Their  sorrowful  tales  are  gathered  up  and  spread 
abroad  by  the  wandering  monks. 

Add  to  this  a  new  invasion  of  Spain  by  African  Moham¬ 
medans,  the  Almoravides.  On  the  25th  October  1087  the 
Christian  army  is  beaten  at  Zolaca.  We  have  mentioned  the 
importance  that  the  repeated  wars  against  the  Saracens  of 
Spain  had  taken  in  the  preoccupations  of  the  French  chivalry, 
the  many  expeditions  which  the  lords  from  the  banks  of  the 
Seine,  the  Loire,  and  the  Saone  had  directed  against  them. 
The  moment  had  arrived  for  a  greater  expedition  against  the 
Saracens  of  the  East. 

Certainly  faith,  the  faith  which  built  the  cathedrals,  played 
a  great  part  in  the  Crusade  ;  but  one  finds  there  other  causes 
which  contemporaries  perhaps  did  not  avow. 

The  education  of  the  nobility,  in  the  eleventh  century, 
was  entirely  military.  The  knights,  ardent,  robust,  keen  on 
movement,  were  fit  only  for  war.  We  have  seen  the  utility 
of  this  education  in  its  time,  but  here  is  the  work  of  the  feudal 
baron  accomplished  ;  the  fief  is  organized.  Its  lord  is  reduced 
to  turning  his  soldierly  activity  against  the  neighbouring  fiefs. 

From  being  beneficial  this  activity  becomes  injurious  ;  but 
how  employ  the  feudal  lords  ? 

They  do  not  accord  well  together, 

Rest  and  honour.  ( Cligès .) 

Before  them  is  about  to  open  the  vast  field  of  the  Crusades. 

Accidental  circumstances  played  an  important  part  :  the 
famine  of  1095.  A  contemporary  chronicler,  Eckhard,  says 
expressly  that  it  was  the  misery  caused  by  the  famine,  and 

100 


THE  CRUSADES 


more  particularly  in  Gaul,  which  induced  so  many  men  to 
leave  their  firesides.  Sigebert  writes  in  the  year  1095  : 

“  The  famine  which  had  been  raging  for  a  long  time  be¬ 
came  very  grave.  The  poor  plundered  the  goods  of  the  rich. 
In  the  country  districts  the  peasants  lived  on  roots.” 

The  conquering  ardour  of  the  Seljuk  Turks  directly 
threatened  the  Christian  Emperor  of  Constantinople,  Alexius. 
He  determined  to  send  to  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  ambassadors, 
who  came  to  Urban  II  at  the  Synod  of  Placencia  (March  1095). 
They  drew  him  a  lively  picture  of  the  evils  which  threatened 
the  Christian  Empire  of  the  East.  From  the  Synod  of  Placencia 
Urban  II  published  a  first  appeal  ;  soon  afterwards  he  came 
to  France,  where  he  was  received  with  transports  of  joy.  “No 
man  living,”  writes  Guibert  de  Nogent,  “  remembers  the 
Supreme  Head  of  the  Apostolic  See  coming  to  visit  these 
countries.” 

Urban  II  was  a  powerful  orator,  tall,  and  of  noble  bearing  ; 
he  displayed  untiring  energy. 

He  appeared  at  the  Council  of  Clermont.  It  would  be  a 
mistake  to  believe  that  this  Council  had  been  called  specially 
on  the  subject  of  the  Crusade.  It  had  to  deal  with  the  ex- 
communication  of  Philip  I  and  the  subject  of  the  French 
Church.  The  order  of  the  day — if  one  may  use  the  phrase — 
contained  the  subject  of  the  Crusade  only  in  the  third  line  ; 
but  hardly  had  the  question  arisen  when  it  produced  an 
immense  explosion  of  enthusiasm.  Some  Christians,  driven 
from  Antioch  and  Jerusalem,  mingled  with  those  assisting  at 
the  Council.  Urban  II  had  not  finished  his  speech  when  cries 
of  “  God  wills  it  !  ”  broke  out  on  all  sides. 

Foucher  de  Chartres  saw  the  knights  having  sewn  on  their 
shoulders  in  silk  or  cloth  of  gold,  or  indeed  in  brown  or  red 
woollen  stuff,  the  crosses  which  indicated  the  vow  to  set  out  for 
the  Holy  Land. 

“  As  soon  as  the  Council  came  to  an  end,”  writes  Guibert  de 
Nogent,  “  there  arose  a  great  clamour  in  every  province  of 
France,  and  as  soon  as  any  one  heard  the  news  of  the  public 
commands  of  the  Pope,  he  went  to  beg  his  relatives  and  neigh¬ 
bours  to  enlist  in  the  way  of  God.” 

And  there  was  seen  to  arise  Peter  the  Hermit  ;  he  was  a 

101 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


hermit  by  profession  (ermite  ordonné).  He  was  born  in  the 
Amiénois.  Formerly  he  had  planned  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy 
Places,  but  had  gone  back  to  his  native  country  without 
having  been  able  to  accomplish  it.  At  Clermont  the  words 
of  Urban  II  carried  him  away,  and  he  consecrated  himself  to 
the  Crusade.  “We  saw  him,”  writes  Guibert  de  Nogent, 
“  traversing  villages  and  towns,  preaching  everywhere  ;  the 
people  swarmed  round  him,  overwhelming  him  with  gifts  and 
praising  his  holiness.” 

He  distributed  generously  all  that  was  given  to  him.  He 
made  peace  between  those  who  were  at  variance,  brought 
runaway  wives  back  to  their  husbands,  giving  them  at  the  same 
time  pleasant  gifts.  There  seemed  to  be  in  him  something 
divine,  and  the  crowd  went  so  far  as  to  pluck  the  hair  from  his 
mule  or  his  ass  as  relics.  He  wore  a  woollen  tunic  and,  above 
it,  a  cloak  of  drugget  reaching  to  his  heels  ;  he  went  bare  armed 
and  bare  footed.  He  was  little  and  thin,  with  black  hair,  bright 
eyes,  an  olive  complexion  ;  and  wore  a  long  grey  beard. 

His  beard  fell  to  the  clasp  of  his  belt.  .  .  . 

(Chanson  d' Antioche.) 

The  chroniclers  enter  into  the  minutest  details  on  this 
subject.  Through  them  we  know  that  Peter  the  Hermit 
liked  neither  bread  nor  meat,  and  lived  on  wine  and  fish. 
Sharp,  decided,  full  of  energy,  he  united  to  a  consuming 
activity  an  ardent  imagination  and  an  enthusiasm  which  was 
infectious.  People  sold  their  goods,  their  fields,  the  family 
house,  to  help  towards  the  expenses  of  the  expedition.  The 
poor  equipped  themselves  in  modest  fashion.  Guibert  de 
Nogent  has  seen  peasants  shoeing  their  oxen  and  yoking  them 
to  their  long  carts,  on  which  they  piled  up  wife  and  children 
and  their  few  belongings. 

“  And  these  little  children,”  says  Guibert,  “  as  soon  as 
they  saw  a  castle  or  a  town  asked  eagerly  if  it  was  Jerusalem.” 
The  enthusiasm  became  such  that  there  was  no  longer  any 
need  to  preach  the  Holy  War  in  the  churches  :  each  one 
preached  it  with  abundance  of  emotion,  in  his  house  to  his 
friends,  to  his  neighbours  checked  on  the  doorstep,  on  the  trap¬ 
door  of  his  cellar,  in  the  street  even  to  all  comers.  “  I  have 
heard  it  said,”  writes  Guibert  de  Nogent  again,  “  that  there 
102 


THE  CRUSADES 


arrived  in  one  of  our  seaports  some  men  who  spoke  a  strange 
language  :  they  put  their  fingers  one  over  another  in  the 
form  of  a  cross,  thus  showing  that  they  wished  to  enrol  them¬ 
selves  in  the  cause  of  faith.” 

Peter  the  Hermit  and  his  innumerable  companies  set  out 
about  the  end  of  the  month  of  March  1096.  It  was  the  true 
Crusade,  the  Crusade  of  the  Poor.  However,  to  this  disordered 
host,  to  which  contemporaries  already  applied  the  words  of 
Solomon,  “  The  grasshoppers  have  no  king,  and  yet  they 
march  in  companies,”  there  was  to  succeed  another  army, 
carefully  organized,  the  army  of  the  feudal  barons,  who  were 
preparing  thoughtfully  and  methodically  the  distant  ex¬ 
pedition. 

And  already  the  words  of  Urban  II  are  seen  to  be  realized  : 
44  And  they  will  become  soldiers,  those  who,  until  to-day,  were 
mere  brigands  ;  they  who  were  fighting  with  brother  and  cousin 
will  now  fight  legitimately  against  the  barbarian  ;  and  they 
who  fought  as  mercenaries  for  a  little  money  will  earn  the 
reward  of  eternal  life.” 

Throughout  the  kingdom,  as  Foucher  de  Chartres  puts  it, 
44  Urban  II  had  renewed  peace.”  The  quarrels  of  castle  against 
castle,  castle  against  town,  vassal  against  suzerain,  family 
against  family,  were  appeased.  44  Before  the  people  put  them¬ 
selves  in  motion  for  this  great  expedition,”  writes  Guibert,  44  the 
kingdom  of  France  was  given  over  on  all  sides  to  disturb¬ 
ances  and  the  cruellest  hostilities.  Soon  tempers  changed  com¬ 
pletely.  .  .  As  the  blasts  of  a  tempestuous  wind  can  be  calmed 
by  a  gentle  rain,  so  these  quarrels  and  conflicts  between  fellow- 
citizens  were  appeased.” 

It  is  convenient  to  record  here  the  precious  remark  of 
Joinville  when  he  disapproved  of  the  Crusade  of  Tunis,  mis¬ 
takenly  undertaken,  he  says, 44  because  at  that  time  the  kingdom 
was  at  peace.” 

This  was  the  first  effect  of  the  Crusade.  And  a  second 
result  was  to  put  an  end  to  the  famine  :  indeed,  the  barriers 
between  the  domains  and  the  provinces  were  destroyed  for 
the  moment  at  least.  As  every  one  wanted  to  procure  the 
money  necessary  for  the  distant  expedition,  they  sold  off  all 
that  had  been  accumulated,  reserves  of  corn,  wine,  and  cattle. 

103 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


The  storehouses  of  the  speculators  were  opened  wide  ;  bushels 
of  wheat,  barley,  maize,  and  oats  were  put  upon  the  market. 
“  The  famine  in  grain,”  says  a  contemporary,  “  is  turned  into 
abundance,  and  I  saw  seven  sheep  sold  for  five  pence”  (about 
four  francs  of  our  present  money). 

Peter  the  Hermit,  at  the  head  of  a  numerous  company, 
arrived  at  Cologne  on  Easter  Sunday,  the  12th  April  1096. 
Other  companies  were  commanded  by  a  knight  of  noble  birth 
but  small  fortune,  Walter  the  Penniless  (Gautier  sans  Avoir)  ; 
they  left  Cologne  with  the  followers  of  the  Hermit  and  entered 
Hungary.  A  widespread  error  attributes  to  the  armies  of 
Peter  the  Hermit  and  Walter  the  Penniless  some  massacres  of 
Jews.  On  the  contrary,  they  conducted  themselves  during 
their  journey  through  Germany  with  a  moderation  and  wisdom 
which  one  must  admire  in  armies  of  that  time  and  made  up 
as  they  were.  The  slaughter  of  Jews  only  began  at  Cologne 
the  29th  May  1096,  a  date  at  which  Peter  and  his  people  were 
already  gone.  These  massacres  were  ordered  by  a  German 
lord,  Count  Enrich  de  Leiningen  ;  they  were  carried  out  by 
the  men-at-arms,  Germans,  whom  he  had  gathered  together. 

Walter  and  his  men  arrived  safely  at  Belgrade  :  but  there, 
when  they  were  refused  provisions,  they  began  to  plunder. 
After  some  unfortunate  conflicts  with  the  Bulgars,  they  arrived 
at  last  before  Constantinople,  where  they  encamped  at  the 
gates  of  the  city  (July  1096),  and  awaited  the  arrival  of  Peter 
and  his  army. 

Peter  the  Hermit  actually  crossed  Bavaria  and  Hungary 
at  the  head  of  a  disorganized  crowd.  The  chronicler  Eckhard 
paints  the  astonishment  caused  by  these  troops,  infinite  in 
number,  some  on  horseback,  some  on  foot,  others  in  two¬ 
wheeled  carts. 

It  is  certain  that  Peter  the  Hermit  gave  proof  of  remark¬ 
able  qualities  :  authority,  intelligence,  activity.  He  was  a 
true  popular  leader  ;  but  the  task  he  had  undertaken  was 
beyond  human  power.  In  proportion  as  difficulties  increased 
and  the  replenishing  of  food  and  fodder  became  harder,  and  as 
with  the  length  of  the  march  the  enthusiasm  of  the  first  days 
died  down,  and  the  instincts  of  disorder  and  plundering  mani¬ 
fested  themselves,  his  authority  proved  unequal  to  the  control 
104 


THE  CRUSADES 


of  the  tumultuous  mob  which  he  was  trailing  behind  him. 
“  He  could  not  curb  this  multitude  of  diverse  peoples  who  were 
unwilling  to  listen  to  him  or  obey  him.”  His  ascendancy  was, 
however,  still  sufficiently  great  for  him  to  be  able  to  win  at 
the  head  of  his  companies  the  victory  of  Semlin  (Zimony). 
A  Hungarian  army  which  had  advanced  against  the  Cru¬ 
saders  w^as  routed.  It  lost  more  than  four  thousand  men, 
while  Peter  left  only  a  hundred  of  his  on  the  battlefield.  Semlin 
was  sacked,  after  which  Peter  made  his  followers  cross  the 
Save  on  a  bridge  of  boats. 

In  these  circumstances  and  others  to  follow,  we  find  in 
Peter  the  Hermit  not  only  an  organizer  but  a  war  leader.  It 
is  true  that  a  leader  in  war  can  succeed  only  at  the  head  of 
disciplined  troops. 

The  Crusaders  suffered  a  first  check  at  Nissa  (Nish),  against 
the  Bulgars.  Peter  lost  there  the  coach  which  contained  his 
war  treasure.  Ten  thousand  Crusaders  were  killed.  The 
remainder  scattered  and  took  refuge  in  the  forests.  Peter 
and  the  few  men-at-arms  still  under  his  orders  took  refuge 
on  the  side  of  a  mountain,  where  they  sounded  the  rally.  He 
was  weeping  over  the  fate  of  so  many  of  his  followers  who  had 
perished  before  reaching  the  Holy  Land.  At  last  30,000 
men  were  united  round  him  and  resumed  their  forward  march 
(July  1096). 

At  Sternitz  (Sofia)  Peter  received  from  the  Emperor  Alexius 
a  message  which  pointed  out  to  him  the  complaints  to  which 
the  insubordination  of  the  Crusaders  were  giving  rise.  The 
Emperor  forbade  them  to  stop  more  than  three  days  in  any 
town  before  arriving  at  Constantinople  ;  but  he  had  sent 
orders,  he  added,  that  in  all  places  they  should  be  furnished 
with  provisions. 

At  this  news  Peter  the  Hermit  wept  with  joy.  The  Crusaders 
reached  Philippopolis,  where,  before  the  inhabitants  of  the  town 
assembled  together,  he  made  a  moving  speech  on  his  enterprise, 
on  the  misfortunes  they  had  suffered,  the  difficulties  they  had 
conquered.  The  inhabitants,  profoundly  moved,  gave  pro¬ 
visions,  horses,  and  money.  The  Crusaders  arrived  under  the 
walls  of  Constantinople  on  the  30th  July  1096,  three  months 
and  ten  days  after  leaving  Cologne.  We  must  remember  the 

105 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


conditions  under  which  this  expedition  was  accomplished,  the 
composition  of  the  army  of  Peter  the  Hermit.  As  it  was 
performed,  this  march  of  the  Crusaders  to  the  banks  of  the 
Bosphorus  is  one  of  the  magnificent  enterprises  of  which  history 
has  preserved  the  memory.  Our  pilgrims  were  forced  to 
encamp  outside  the  walls  of  the  Greek  capital,  in  some  plains 
where  they  found  Walter  the  Penniless  and  his  companions. 

To  tell  the  truth,  the  Emperor  Alexius  felt  more  fear  than 
pleasure  at  the  aspect  of  these  first  auxiliaries.  In  what  dis¬ 
order  and  wild  misery  were  these  armed  peasants  with  their 
wives  and  children  after  their  long  and  harsh  Odyssey.  The 
more  so  as  a  number  of  them,  in  spite  of  the  prohibitions, 
penetrated  into  the  great  city,  where  they  entered  the  sumptuous 
dwellings,  robbed  and  plundered,  embraced  the  ladies,  some¬ 
times  not  too  gently,  and  pulled  about  the  chambermaids. 
They  set  fire  to  some  houses,  and  tore  the  lead  from  the  roofs 
of  the  churches  and  sold  it  to  the  Greeks. 

The  Emperor  was  in  a  hurry  to  get  these  disturbing  allies 
to  pass  on  into  Asia  Minor.  On  the  5th  August  the  trans¬ 
portation  of  the  first  detachments  to  the  coasts  of  Bithynia 
was  begun. 

Skirting  the  Asiatic  bank  of  the  Bosphorus,  Peter  marched 
with  his  army  on  Nicomedia  (Ismid).  He  reached  Civitot 
(now  Hersek),  on  the  Gulf  of  Nicomedia.  Here,  through  want 
of  discipline,  a  part  of  the  German  contingent  got  separated 
from  him.  Others,  Frenchmen,  to  the  number  of  7000  or 
10,000,  pushed  on  in  spite  of  the  exhortations  of  Peter  up  to 
the  outskirts  of  Nicæa.  They  ravaged  the  country  and  gave 
themselves  up  to  the  most  frightful  excesses.  Imagine,  in 
those  rude  mediaeval  days,  men  of  the  people,  and  exasperated 
by  privation.  Separated  from  their  leader  they  knew  no 
restraint.  They  seized  children  ;  and  to  cook  them  they  cut 
them  into  pieces  or  roasted  them  spitted  on  stakes.  They 
inflicted  frightful  tortures  on  the  adults.  They  thrust  back 
into  the  town  the  inhabitants  of  Nicæa  who  had  come  out  to 
meet  them,  and  with  great  booty  and  numerous  cattle  they 
returned  in  triumph  to  the  camp. 

The  success  of  this  enterprise  excited  the  jealousy  of  what 
remained  of  the  German  and  Lombard  contingents,  who  split 
106 


THE  CRUSADES 


off  from  Peter  in  spite  of  his  remonstrances  (20th  September 
1096).  Their  enterprise  did  not  turn  out  so  well.  Surprised 
by  a  lieutenant  of  Suleiman,  in  the  precincts  of  the  castle  of 
Xerigordos,  they  managed  to  take  refuge  there  ;  but,  besieged, 
tortured  by  hunger  and  thirst,  they  capitulated  and  were 
massacred  or  kept  prisoners  (7th  October  1096). 

The  remainder  of  the  troops  of  Peter  the  Hermit  fell  into 
an  ambuscade  at  Civitot.  The  Turkish  army  was  fresh, 
numerous,  admirably  armed,  splendidly  commanded.  By 
clever  manoeuvring  they  drew  the  Crusaders  on  into  some 
narrow  gorges  in  which,  with  the  greatest  ease,  they  slaughtered 
them  (21st  October  1096). 

Vessels  sent  by  Alexius,  the  Emperor  of  Constantinople, 
gathered  up  the  remnants  of  the  popular  expedition  ;  but  the 
great  majority  of  these  poor  folk  had  perished.  Those  who 
survived,  and  among  them  Peter  the  Hermit,  were  taken  back 
under  the  walls  of  Constantinople,  where  some  awaited  the 
arrival  of  the  army  of  the  knights,  while  the  others  went  sadly 
back  to  France. 

The  army  of  knights,  which  will  arrive  in  the  spring  of  1097 
on  the  scene  of  disaster,  on  the  outskirts  of  Nicomedia  and 
Civitot  will  be  horrorstruck  at  the  sight  of  the  bleached  bones. 
“  Oh,  with  what  severed  heads  and  bones  the  sea  borders 
were  covered  !  ” 

The  daughter  of  the  Emperor  Alexius,  the  Princess  Anne, 
relates  that  afterwards  quite  a  mountain  was  built  up  of  these 
bones.  And  later  they  served  as  materials  for  the  construction 
of  a  fortress  by  the  French.  Mixed  with  lime  these  bones 
formed  dry  and  resistant  walls. 

The  lamentable  check  of  the  popular  Crusade,  in  spite  of 
the  elements  of  success  which  it  contained,  in  spite  of  the 
valour  of  its  leaders  Peter  the  Hermit  and  Walter  the  Penniless, 
in  spite  of  the  valour  and  faith  of  the  soldiers,  shows  that  the 
people  only  perform  great  actions  and  create  great  works  when 
acting  in  a  perfect  social  co-ordination  :  in  such  a  social  co-ordina¬ 
tion  as  was  to  ensure  the  success  of  the  Knights’  Crusade. 

Divided  into  five  principal  corps,  this  Crusade  only  took  the 
road  well  after  the  departure  of  Peter  the  Hermit  and  his 
companions.  The  first  of  these  army  corps,  composed  of  men 

107 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


of  Lorraine,  of  Frenchmen  of  the  north,  and  men  of  the  Rhine, 
counted  in  its  ranks  Godfrey  de  Bouillon,  the  Duke  of  Basse- 
Lorraine  and  his  brothers  Eustace  and  Baldwin  of  Boulogne. 
By  way  of  Germany,  Hungary,  Bulgaria,  and  Thrace,  it  arrived 
in  sight  of  Constantinople  on  the  23rd  December  1096.  The 
second  army,  formed  of  Flemish  and  Frisian  contingents, 
under  the  direction  of  Count  Robert  of  Flanders,  arrived  under 
the  walls  of  Constantinople  in  April  1097.  They  had  gone 
by  way  of  Italy,  through  Campania  and  Apulia,  and  reached  the 
port  of  Bari  on  the  Adriatic.  Among  them  was  the  chronicler 
Foucher  de  Chartres.  44  A  great  number  of  poor  people,”  he 
writes,  44  and  those  who  were  wanting  in  energy,  frightened  at  the 
thought  of  the  hardships  which  awaited  them,  sold  their  bows, 
resumed  the  pilgrim’s  staff,  and  made  their  way  back  to  their 
own  country.”  But  the  majority  embarked  for  the  East. 
The  third  army,  at  the  head  of  which  shone  Raimond  de  St. 
Gilles,  Count  of  Toulouse  and  Marquis  of  Provence,  arrived 
under  the  walls  of  Constantinople  about  the  same  time  as  the 
soldiers  of  Robert  of  Flanders,  i.e.  in  April  1097.  It  had  come 
by  way  of  Lombardy,  Dalmatia,  and  Epirus.  The  fourth 
army  of  knights  included  the  Italians  and  the  Normans  estab¬ 
lished  in  Apulia,  in  Calabria,  and  in  Sicily,  with  Boémond, 
Prince  of  Tarento,  the  eldest  son  of  the  famous  Robert  Guiscard, 
and  the  nephew  of  Guiscard,  Tancred.  They  embarked  on  the 
Adriatic  at  Brindisi,  whence  they  crossed  to  Durazzo.  By  way 
of  Epirus  and  Thrace  they  also  reached  Constantinople  in  April. 
Finally,  in  May  1097,  the  French  of  the  centre  and  the  west, 
under  the  command  of  Robert  Short  Hose,  Duke  of  Normandy, 
crossed  the  Bosphorus  in  their  turn. 

We  have  given  the  names  of  the  most  illustrious  lords  who 
were  in  these  five  army  corps  ;  but  it  would  be  a  mistake  to 
think  that  any  of  them  exercised  a  military  command,  a  power 
like  that  of  a  general-in-chief,  to  use  a  modern  expression.  Each 
feudal  baron  went  independently  of  the  neighbouring  baron, 
surrounded  by  contingents  assured  to  him  by  the  men  of  his 
fief,  his  vassals  ;  he  went  with  the  4 4  barnage  ”  of  his  household  : 

From  France,  from  England,  from  all  Normandy, 

Prince,  Duke,  and  Count,  each  with  his  mesnie. 

(Chanson  d' Antioche,  Chant  i.  v.  796.) 


108 


THE  CRUSADES 


Each  of  these  contingents  acted  in  isolation,  under  the 
direction  of  its  feudal  head,  whose  standard  it  followed. 

Thus  they  arrived  at  Constantinople  in  little  groups,  each  of 
which  reproduced  the  picture  of  the  fief  they  had  left.  The 
baron  who  commanded  it  was  in  his  turn  united  to  another 
more  important  lord  only  by  the  feudal  ties  which  might  exist 
between  them.  In  the  plains  of  Syria,  in  Palestine,  the  army 
of  the  Crusaders  will  represent  a  bit  of  feudal  France  transported 
to  the  East,  with  its  forms,  its  constitution,  its  hierarchy.  From 
this  will  come  its  weakness  for  concerted  movements,  but  also 
its  power  of  resistance  and  its  indestructible  cohesion. 

The  old  knights  who  had  already  warred  with  the  Saracens 
in  Spain,  beyond  the  mountains,  the  authentic  heroes  of  the 
chansons  de  geste ,  were  already  vested  with  a  special  esteem 
among  their  companions-in-arms  : 

They  have  beards  whiter  than  the  flowers  of  the  field, 

Below  their  helmets  appear 
Their  grey  hairs.  .  .  . 

•  ••••••• 

These  are  the  good  knights  of  old, 

Who  conquered  Spain  by  their  valour. 

(Chanson  d' Antioche,  Chant  viii.  v.  311-13,  334-35.) 

Among  the  number  were  to  be  seen  Thomas  de  Marie,  lord 
of  Coucy,  Clarembaud  de  Vendeuil,  Guillaume  le  Charpentier. 

Mounted  on  their  swift  chargers  these  knights  of  ours  have 
the  classical  equipment  of  the  feudal  baron  : 

Armed  with  hauberks  and  helmets  and  quartered  shields, 

Lances  they  have  strong  and  straight,  with  folded  gonfalons  ; 
Silver  and  pure  gold  shine  bright  in  their  shields, 

And  in  their  hauberks  and  helmets  steel  and  iron  shine. 

(Chanson  d' Antioche,  Chant  viii.  v.  242.) 

The  army  of  Crusaders  is  under  the  direction  of  one  person 
whose  rôle  has  not  been  made  sufficiently  clear,  the  Papal 
Legate,  Adhémar  de  Monteil,  Bishop  of  Puy.  Let  us  not 
deceive  ourselves  :  Adhémar  de  Monteil,  at  the  head  of  this 
feudal  France  which  has  been  transported  to  the  East,  re¬ 
presents  an  authority  comparable  to  that  of  the  King  at  the 
pinnacle  of  the  feudal  France  which  stays  at  home  ;  a  moral 
authority,  of  a  character  at  the  same  time  religious  and  military, 

109 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


and  which  has  as  its  principal  function  to  maintain  union  and 
concord,  to  perform  the  work  of  justice  and  pacification.  For 
Adhémar  de  Monteil  at  the  head  of  the  Crusaders  is  as  much 
44  baron  ”  as  prelate,  just  as  the  King,  as  we  have  seen,  is  as 
much  prelate  as  baron.  Adhémar  de  Monteil  is  the  Arch¬ 
bishop  Turpin  of  the  epic  poems  : 

The  Bishop  of  Puy  was  brave  and  eloquent; 

When  the  service  was  over  from  church  he  turned, 

As  fast  as  he  could  to  his  dwelling  he  went; 

With  wonderful  arms  was  he  that  day  equipped, 

He  put  on  a  hauberk  of  beaten  metal 
And  laced  his  helmet  studded  with  gems, 

His  spurs  to  his  feet  he  fixed 
And  girt  the  sword  to  his  left  side. 

(Chanson  cT Antioche,  Chant  viii.  v.  1.) 

Adhémar  de  Monteil  was  the  real  leader  of  the  first  Crusade. 
The  moral  authority  which  placed  him  at  the  head  of  the  con¬ 
federation  of  French  lords  was  reinforced  in  him  by  a  vigor¬ 
ous  intelligence,  an  energetic  character,  and  a  marvellous  gift 
of  organization.  Especially  in  all  questions  of  provisioning, 
which  became  so  redoubtable,  so  agonizing,  he  rendered  the 
greatest  service.  When  he  dies  at  Antioch  on  the  1st  August 
1098,  the  lords,  in  the  necessity  in  which  they  stand  of  filling 
his  place,  are  to  elect  the  Bishop  of  Martorano  (a  city  in  the 
Kingdom  of  Naples). 

Such  then  were  the  leaders  of  the  first  Crusade  :  the  Bishop 
of  Puy,  then,  after  his  death  (1st  August  1098),  the  Bishop  of 
Martorano,  up  to  the  time  when,  at  Jerusalem,  Godfrey  de 
Bouillon  will  be  chosen  Baron  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre. 

Foucher  de  Chartres  describes  the  Crusaders  encamped 
under  the  walls  of  the  Greek  capital  :  44  Our  tents  were  set  up 
within  sight  of  the  town,  and  we  rested  during  fourteen  days 
from  our  fatigues.  We  could  not  go  into  the  town  ;  the 
Emperor  would  not  allow  it  ;  he  was  afraid  we  should  do  some 
damage  there.  We  were  obliged  to  buy  the  necessities  of  life 
each  day  outside  the  walls.  The  inhabitants  brought  these 
provisions  to  us  by  order  of  the  Emperor.” 

The  French  and  the  Byzantines  did  not  trust  one  another. 
The  latter  were  afraid  of  being  plundered  and  ravaged  ;  the 
former  feared  poison  or  betrayal.  The  Western  knights  seemed 
110 


THE  CRUSADES 


gross  brutal  creatures  to  the  subjects  of  the  Emperor  Alexius, 
who  on  their  side  were  regarded  by  the  Westerners  as  knaves 
and  cowards. 

The  ends  pursued  by  France  on  the  one  side  and  by  Greece  on 
the  other  were,  moreover,  not  identical.  Alexius  Comnenus 
had  only  appealed  to  the  Crusaders  in  the  hope  of  destroying 
the  Turks,  who  were  becoming  formidable  to  him,  and  of 
extending  his  Empire  ;  while  the  French  intended  only  to  fight 
for  the  Faith  and  to  remain  masters  of  the  conquered  territories. 

Penetrating  into  Asia  Minor,  the  Crusaders  advanced  as  far 
as  the  walls  of  Nicæa,  the  siege  of  which  they  began  (15th  May 
1097).  The  different  army  corps  were  united  there,  and  it 
appears  that  they  may  have  recognized  for  some  time  the 
military  authority  of  Boémond,  the  Prince  of  Tarento. 

Foucher  de  Chartres  estimates  the  army  of  the  Crusaders 
at  100,000  men-at-arms,  without  counting  the  servants,  the 
archers,  and  the  swarm  of  clerics,  besides  women  and  children  : 
600,000  souls  come  from  the  West  would,  according  to  this,  be 
united  in  the  Knights’  Crusade.  These  figures  are,  perhaps, 
exaggerated. 

It  was  a  regular  siege  :  machines  were  constructed  ; 
ballistas  and  stone-throwers  beat  upon  the  walls  ;  the  ramparts 
were  mined.  But  the  Turks  were  skilful  in  shooting.  With 
iron  hooks  attached  to  ropes  they  hooked  up  the  bodies  of 
the  assailants  who  had  fallen  at  the  foot  of  the  walls,  and 
then,  with  the  help  of  catapults,  flung  these  corpses  on  the 
Christians.  Provisions  were  brought  to  the  besieging  army 
in  vessels  which  the  Emperor  Alexius  sent  from  Constantinople. 
On  the  glaucous  sea  their  sails,  with  daylight  shining  through 
them,  were  the  colour  of  the  setting  sun.  The  town  was  taken 
on  the  19th  June  1097  ;  it  was  occupied  by  the  Greek  troops. 
After  this  the  French  could  grant  themselves  a  little  repose, 
by  which  they  profited  to  renew  their  equipment. 

On  the  27th  June  they  resumed  their  march  eastward. 

The  Turkish  horsemen,  on  their  agile  steeds,  appeared 
suddenly,  hovered  round  them,  enveloped  them.  They  deaf¬ 
ened  them  with  their  cries  and  the  noise  of  their  drums. 

They  give  forth  a  noise  like  chained  dogs. 

( Chanson  cT Antioche.) 

Ill 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


They  launched  darts  and  fought  while  fleeing,  drawing 
their  bows  on  those  who  pursued  them. 

A  considerable  army,  led  by  the  Emir  Suleiman  to  the  help 
of  the  Turks  besieged  in  Nicæa,  met  the  Crusaders  in  the  Plain 
of  Dorylæum  (1st  July  1097).  The  Turks,  according  to  the 
estimate  of  Foucher  de  Chartres,  numbered  360,000,  all  on 
horseback  and  armed  with  bow  and  arrows.  Several  of  the 
chief  French  leaders,  Godfrey  de  Bouillon,  Raymond,  Count  of 
Toulouse,  Hugh  the  Great,  Count  of  Vermandois,  the  brother 
of  the  King  of  France,  had  left  the  main  army  with  their  men. 
Boémond,  who  was  in  command  on  this  journey,  displayed 
there  the  qualities  of  a  great  soldier.  The  Turks  began  the 
attack  with  furious  cries,  raining  on  the  Crusaders  a  shower  of 
arrows.  Boémond  supported  his  men  with  rare  energy  ;  but, 
in  spite  of  his  efforts,  the  Christians,  for  whom  this  was  a  war 
of  a  quite  new  kind,  were  wavering,  when  Godfrey  de  Bouillon 
and  Hugh  the  Great  arrived  at  the  head  of  their  contingents. 
Prelates  and  priests,  vested  in  white  albs,  went  about  among 
the  ranks  of  the  combatants.  They  heard  the  confessions  of 
the  wounded.  The  Mohammedans  yielded.  The  Christians 
pushed  their  attack.  The  Turks  fled  over  mountain  and  valley, 
and  they  still  fled  terror-stricken  long  after  the  French  had 
ceased  to  pursue  them. 

The  Crusaders  continued  their  march  on  Antioch,  traversing 
Lesser  Armenia,  where  everything  had  been  devastated  by 
the  Turks. 

From  their  first  encounters  Turks  and  French  learned  to 
appreciate  each  other.  “The  French  themselves,”  writes 
Guibert  de  Nogent,  “  recognized  that  they  had  not  seen  any 
race  of  men  which  could  be  compared  to  that  of  the  Turks 
for  shrewdness  of  mind  and  courage  in  the  fight  ;  and  further, 
when  the  Turks  began  to  fight  against  them,  the  French  were 
nearly  reduced  to  despair  by  the  astonishment  which  the  arms 
used  by  their  adversaries  caused  them,  weapons  of  which  our 
people  had  no  knowledge.  The  French  could  not  have  imagined 
the  extreme  dexterity  of  their  adversaries  in  the  handling  of 
horses  and  the  promptitude  with  which  they  avoided  the 
attacks  and  the  blows  of  their  enemies,  having  the  habit  of 
fighting  and  discharging  their  arrows  in  the  act  of  fleeing. 
112 


THE  CRUSADES 


On  their  side  the  Turks  regard  themselves  as  having  the  same 
origin  as  the  French,  and  think  that  military  superiority  belongs 
of  right  to  these  two  people  among  all  nations.” 

The  Crusaders  crossed  the  Taurus  and  set  out  for  Antioch 
by  way  of  Cilicia.  They  had  to  cross  burning  plains.  They 
were  not  clothed  for  such  expeditions.  Under  an  implacable 
sun,  how  their  thick  leather  tunics  plated  with  scales  of  brass 
weighed  them  down.  They  suffered  from  thirst  ;  their  horses 
perished  along  the  route  ;  at  certain  stopping-places  soldiers 
died  in  hundreds. 

“  Then,”  writes  Foucher,  “  you  would  have  laughed,  or 
wept  perhaps,  to  see  some  of  our  men,  for  want  of  horses,  put 
their  possessions  in  packages  on  the  backs  of  sheep,  goats,  pigs, 
and  dogs,  clothes,  food,  or  other  necessities  of  the  journey. 
The  backs  of  the  poor  beasts  were  rasped  by  the  friction  of 
the  packages.  And  knights-at-arms  were  seen  riding  on  oxen.” 

“  By  desert  and  roadless  ways,”  writes  Guibert  on  his  side, 
“  the  Christians  entered  an  uninhabited  country,  impracticable 
and  devoid  of  water.  They  had  no  other  resource  to  alleviate 
their  sufferings  than  some  cloves  of  garlic  with  which  they 
rubbed  their  lips.” 

“  And  you  would  see  many  cemeteries  in  the  fields  and  woods 
along  the  roads  made  from  the  tombs  of  our  Crusaders  ” 
(Foucher  de  Chartres). 

But  faith  and  the  strong  feudal  discipline  bore  up  the 
army.  They  spoke  the  most  diverse  languages,  for  there  were 
there  Frenchmen,  Flemings,  Frisians,  Welsh,  Bretons,  men  of 
Lorraine,  of  the  Rhine,  Normans,  Scottish,  English,  Aquita- 
nians,  Italians,  Iberians,  Dacians,  Greeks,  and  Armenians. 
“  But  if  we  were  divided  by  so  many  tongues,  we  were  none 
the  less  united  in  the  love  of  God  ”  (Foucher  de  Chartres). 

It  was  through  the  leaders  that  division  was  to  slip  in. 
They  grew  jealous  of  each  other.  The  conquests  which  each 
hoped  to  make  created  rivalries  among  them.  Towards  the 
end  of  September,  Baldwin  of  Boulogne,  the  brother  of  Godfrey 
de  Bouillon,  and  Tancred,  Duke  of  Pouille,  followed  by  their 
contingents,  separated  themselves  from  the  main  army,  and 
penetrated  beyond  the  Taurus  into  the  country  of  the  Armenians, 
where  they  besieged  and  took  Tarsus. 

H 


118 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


It  had  been  agreed  among  the  Crusaders  that  the  con¬ 
quered  towns  should  belong  to  him  among  the  leaders  whose 
banner  should  first  float  over  it.  Tancred  planted  his  “  silken 
gonfalon  ”  on  the  walls  of  Tarsus  : 

Baldwin  has  seen  it  and  his  heart  is  angry  ; 

That  day  he  did  a  deed  of  great  reproach  : 

He  bade  a  friend  take  down  the  banner 

And  hoisted  his  own,  bordered  with  gold. 

( Chanson  cT Antioche,  Chant  iii.  v.  317.) 

Tancred,  furious,  wished  to  march  against  Baldwin  at  the 
head  of  his  contingents.  Richard  the  Pilgrim  takes  the  part 
of  Tancred  ;  while  Foucher  de  Chartres  says  he  is  wrong. 
Under  the  influence  of  Boémond,  Prince  of  Tarento,  the  two 
rivals  were  reconciled. 

Similar  dissensions  will  be  renewed  after  the  taking  of 
Antioch  between  Boémond  and  Raimond  de  Saint-Gilles. 
To  appease  them,  the  suzerain  authority  of  Adhémar  de  Monteil, 
and  after  him  of  his  successor,  the  Bishop  of  Martorano,  is 
brought  into  play. 

The  Crusading  army  reached  Antioch  on  the  20th  October 
1097.  In  the  town  was  a  considerable  garrison  of  Moham¬ 
medans.  Antioch  was  defended  by  its  natural  position,  by  the 
Orontes,  by  its  situation  on  the  side  of  the  mountain,  which 
its  walls,  reinforced  by  450  towers,  enclosed  with  a  girdle  of 
stone.  The  French  pitched  their  tents  at  a  little  distance 
from  the  ramparts  and  attacked  the  place  furiously.  They 
came  very  soon  on  both  sides  to  acts  of  the  greatest  ferocity. 
The  Christians  managed  to  capture  some  Turks  : 

They  cut  off  their  heads,  and  fix  them  to  poles 

And  have  them  set  up  in  the  fields.  .  .  . 

(v.  618.) 

Mournful  ornaments  under  the  eyes  of  the  besieged  !  The 
Crusaders  took  prisoner  the  nephew  of  the  Emir  Jagi-Sian, 
who  was  defending  the  town  : 

They  have  cut  off  the  head  of  the  nephew  of  Jagi-Sian  ; 

And  thrown  it  within  the  city  from  a  mangonel. 

( Chanson  cT  Antioche,  Chant  v.  v.  409.) 

Distinguished  among  the  Crusaders  by  their  pitiless  cruelty 
were  those  whom  Richard  the  Pilgrim  calls  “  the  people  of 
114 


THE  CRUSADES 


King  Tafur  ”  :  a  ribald  mob  of  vagrants,  but  with  an  exalted 
faith  and  a  courage  proof  against  everything.  These  44  ribalds  ” 
were  placed  under  the  high  command  of  Boémond.  44  King 
Tafur,”  assisted  by  Peter  the  Hermit,  exercised  an  immediate 
authority  over  them.  Richard  the  Pilgrim  paints  them  in 
picturesque  terms  : 

They  carried  with  them  neither  lance  nor  sword, 

But  two-edged  weapons  ground  and  weighted  with  lead. 

The  King  (Tafur)  carries  a  scythe,  well  tempered. 

Well  he  leads  his  serried  company  : 

They  have  bags  tied  to  their  necks  by  plaited  cords, 

Their  sides  are  bare  and  their  stomachs  empty, 

Their  knees  are  burnt  brown,  their  shoes  broken  ; 

By  whatever  country  they  pass  they  greatly  spoil  the  land. 

( Chanson  cT  Antioche,  Chant  viii.,  the  part 
preserved  by  Richard  the  Pilgrim,  v.  87.) 

The  siege  dragged  on.  Where  were  provisions  to  be  got 
in  these  wasted  or  desert  countries  ?  Famine,  and  the  arrows 
of  the  Saracens  were  scattering  death.  The  privations  were  so 
great  that  some  Crusaders  deserted  the  camp  ;  their  energy 
was  exhausted  ;  they  wanted  to  get  back  to  their  own  country. 
And,  among  these  fugitives,  people  saw  one  day  with  astonish¬ 
ment  Peter  the  Hermit  himself  ;  he  was  fleeing  with  one  of 
the  most  redoubted  leaders  of  the  army,  William,  Viscount  of 
Melun,  called  le  Charpentier  (the  Carpenter).  44  He  was  so 
called,”  observes  a  chronicler,  44  not  because  he  was  skilful  in 
cutting  wood,  but  because,  in  the  fight,  he  struck  out  like  a  car¬ 
penter.”  The  soldiers  of  Tancred  caught  up  with  the  fugitives. 

The  chroniclers  state  that  le  Charpentier  passed  the  whole 
night  lying  on  the  ground  in  Boémond’s  tent.  The  Prince  of 
Tarento  wanted  to  put  him  to  death  ;  but  several  of  the  chief 
Crusaders  begged  that  he  might  be  spared  :  44  I  would  willingly 
consent,”  replied  Boémond,  44  if  he  swore  from  the  bottom  of 
his  heart  not  to  abandon  again  the  holy  pilgrimage.”  Le 
Charpentier  took  the  oath,  as  well  as  Peter  the  Hermit — an 
oath  which  Peter  was  to  keep  ;  but  le  Charpentier  fled  away 
some  months  later  and  could  not  be  retaken. 

The  famine  among  the  French  became  more  and  more 
terrible.  They  fed  on  grass,  bark,  and  roots  ;  they  ate  their 
horses,  their  donkeys,  their  camels,  their  dogs,  and  even  rats 

115 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


and  mice.  They  devoured  the  leather  straps  and  thongs  of 
the  harnessings  of  their  horses.  As  a  climax  of  misery  their 
tents  were  in  rags,  rotting  and  torn  ;  many  of  them  had  no 
shelter  but  the  vault  of  heaven.  Some  atrocious  scenes  are 
described  with  a  singular  vigour  by  Richard  the  Pilgrim  and 
by  Graindor  of  Douai  : 

The  lord  Peter  the  Hermit  sat  before  his  tent, 

To  him  came  Tafur  and  many  of  his  people. 

He  had  more  than  a  thousand  swollen  with  hunger. 

“  Sir,  counsel  me,  for  holy  Charity, 

For  see,  we  die  of  hunger  and  wretchedness.” 

And  my  lord  Peter  replied  :  “It  is  through  your  cowardice. 

Go  take  these  Turks  who  lie  there  dead, 

Cooked  and  salted  they  will  be  good  to  eat.” 

And  says  King  Tafur  :  “It  is  truth  you  say.” 

From  the  tent  of  Peter  he  turns  away  and  has  summoned  his  ribalds  ; 
They  were  more  than  ten  thousand  when  together  assembled. 

The  Turks  they  flayed  and  their  entrails  removed, 

By  boiling  and  roasting  they  cooked  the  flesh; 

Thus  they  ate  but  tasted  no  bread. 

By  this  were  the  Pagans  much  affrighted, 

For  the  scent  of  the  flesh  reached  to  the  ramparts. 

Twenty  thousand  Pagans  watched  the  ribalds  ; 

There  was  no  single  Turk  who  did  not  weep. 

( Chanson  cT Antioche,  Chant  v.  v.  4.) 

The  44  ribalds  ”  said  to  one  another  :  44  Why,  it  is  Shrove 
Tuesday.  This  Turk’s  flesh  is  better  than  bacon  or  ham  in  oil.” 
And  when  they  no  longer  found  in  the  fields  Saracens’  bodies 
to  flay,  they  went  to  dig  for  them  in  the  cemetery. 

And  went  to  the  cemeteries  and  dug  up  the  bodies; 

All  together  they  piled  them  in  a  heap, 

The  decomposed  they  threw  into  the  Orentes, 

The  others  flayed  and  dried  in  the  wind. 

The  lords  of  the  army  come  to  have  a  look  at  this  terrible 
banquet,  Robert  Short  Hose  and  Boémond,  Tancred  and 
Godfrey  de  Bouillon. 

Each  stopped  before  King  Tafur, 

Laughing  they  ask  him  :  “  How  do  you  feel  ?  ” 

“  By  my  faith,”  said  the  King,  “  I  am  much  restored  ; 

If  only  I  had  wherewith  to  drink,  I  have  eaten  enough.” 

Said  the  Duke  of  Bouillon  :  “  Sir  King,  you  shall  have  it.” 

Of  his  good  wine  he  gave  him  a  bottle. 

(Chanson  cT  Antioche,  Chant  v.  v.  61.) 


116 


THE  CRUSADES 


The  worst  instincts  awoke  under  the  prick  of  sharp  misery. 
“  If  it  happened,”  says  Guibert,  “  that  some  one  from  the 
army  went  a  little  too  far  from  the  camp,  and  another  of  the 
same  army  happened  to  meet  him  alone,  the  one  would  put  the 
other  to  death  to  rifle  him.” 

At  last,  on  the  3rd  June  (1098),  the  Christians  took  the  town, 
thanks  to  one  of  the  besieged,  an  Armenian  named  Firouz,  whom 
Boémond  had  managed  to  seduce.  He  enabled  twenty  of  the 
French  to  mount  the  ramparts  at  night  by  means  of  ropes  ; 
and  these  soon  drew  forty  more  up  to  them.  They  opened 
the  gates  and,  to  the  cries  of  “  God  wills  it  !  ”  the  Crusaders 
burst  into  Antioch,  where  they  set  themselves  to  massacre  the 
infidels  with  fierce  conviction. 

The  joy  of  the  Christians  as  masters  of  Antioch  was  of 
short  duration.  On  the  15th  June,  Kerboga,  the  Emir  of 
Mossoul,  appeared  in  sight  of  the  town  with  an  immense  army 
— 500,000  or  600,000  men,  if  one  can  believe  the  accounts  ;  he 
would  have  saved  Antioch  if  he  had  not  stopped  three  weeks 
at  the  siege  of  Edessa,  where  Baldwin  was  shut  up.  In  Antioch 
the  Turks  had  consumed  or  destroyed  all  provisions.  Kerboga 
intercepted  the  communications  of  the  Crusaders  with  the  sea, 
so  that  they  could  only  have  their  supplies  replenished  by  the 
vessels  of  the  Emperor  Alexius.  The  French  army  is  besieged 
in  its  turn,  and  very  soon  the  horrors  of  famine  are  felt  anew, 
aggravated  by  the  horrors  of  the  plague.  Some  of  the  Cru¬ 
saders  found  nourishment  in  the  blood  of  their  horses,  which 
they  sucked  from  the  veins.  And  the  desertions  recom¬ 
menced.  Those  who,  weary  of  so  much  suffering,  gave  up  the 
Crusade  to  try  and  get  back  to  their  homes,  escaped  by  night, 
by  means  of  ropes,  with  the  help  of  which  they  slid  down  to  the 
foot  of  the  ramparts.  Hence  the  name  of  “  funambulists  ” — 
from  the  Latin  funambulus ,  rope  dancer — which  was  soon 
applied  to  them.  Among  them  was  one  of  the  lords  of  highest 
birth  in  the  army,  Stephen,  Count  of  Blois,  who  got  back  to 
France, 

Faith  sustained  the  courage  of  the  besieged,  fortified  by 
visions  and  mystic  dreams  ;  and  then  the  finding  of  the  Holy 
Lance,  which  had  pierced  the  side  of  Christ,  discovered  on  the 
14th  June  1098  through  the  information  of  a  Provençal  priest, 

117 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Peter  Barthélémy,  restored  courage  to  all.  This  marvellous 
episode  is  related  by  witnesses  of  the  Crusade  by  the  writer 
of  the  Gestes,  by  an  anonymous  account  published  by  Bongars 
and  by  Raymond  d’Aguilers.  According  to  them  Christ  and 
Saint  Andrew  appeared  three  times  to  Peter  Barthélémy,  to 
inform  him  of  the  place  in  which,  under  the  altar  of  the  Church 
of  St.  Peter  at  Antioch,  the  Holy  Lance  should  be  found. 
Search  was  made  according  to  the  indications  of  the  priest, 
and  the  precious  relic  came  to  light.  There  was  great  joy  and 
enthusiasm.  The  resolution  was  taken  to  make  an  armed 
sortie  from  the  town  and  to  march  against  Kerboga.  Visibly 
supported  by  the  intervention  of  Heaven,  could  the  Crusaders 
prove  other  than  invincible  ?  It  was  now  that,  for  the  first 
time,  the  Crusaders  gave  themselves  a  captain.  The  choice 
of  the  army  leaders  fell  on  Boémond,  Prince  of  Tarento.  More¬ 
over,  the  command  was  only  put  in  his  hands  for  a  period  of 
fifteen  days. 

This  Boémond,  the  son  of  the  able  Robert  Guiscard,  was 
the  very  type  of  a  feudal  knight  :  with  the  figure  of  a  Hercules, 
his  hair  worn  very  short  on  the  forehead,  he  had  square  fists 
and  a  square  head  with  greyish  eyes  set  wide  apart.  He  seems 
to  have  surpassed  his  companions-in-arms  in  his  knowledge 
of  war  ;  he  was  clever  at  posting  the  combatants  at  strategic 
points  and  getting  them  to  perform  manoeuvres  at  the  right 
moment.  He  held  himself  during  an  action  behind  the  army  with 
a  reserve  of  picked  soldiers,  following  with  his  eye  the  movements 
of  the  troops  and  ready  to  intervene  at  the  proper  moment. 

Before  coming  to  blows,  on  the  27th  June  (1098)  Boémond 
sent  five  messengers  to  Kerboga  to  tell  him  to  retire.  At  their 
head  was  Peter  the  Hermit,  who  spoke  to  the  Emir  with  a 
passion  and  authority  which  could  not  fail  to  impress  the 
Saracen  ;  but  Kerboga  recovered  himself  and  replied  that  the 
French  had  their  choice  between  conversion  to  the  Crescent 
or  death. 

They  gave  battle  on  the  28th  June.  The  Crusaders  were 
in  a  pitiable  state  of  dilapidation  ;  some  of  them  were  almost 
naked.  The  majority  of  the  knights  were  on  foot  ;  others  were 
mounted  on  donkeys  or  camels,  but  they  were  animated  by  an 
ardour  which  doubled  their  strength. 

118 


THE  CRUSADES 

The  description  of  the  battle  of  Antioch  by  Richard  the 
Pilgrim  and  Graindor  of  Douai  is  worthy  of  being  given  in  its 
entirety.  Richard  was  an  onlooker.  His  story  is  animated 
with  an  epic  inspiration.  The  Christians  issue  from  Antioch 
and  cross  the  Orontes  to  give  battle  to  Kerboga. 

The  wives  of  the  Crusaders  themselves  are  to  take  part  in 
the  action. 

The  ladies  who  went  to  serve  our  Lord 

Ran  to  the  hotels  (of  Antioch)  to  seize  weapons, 

They  tie  their  veils  over  their  heads  to  shield  them  from  the  wind, 
Many  collect  stones  in  their  sleeves  (to  throw  at  the  Saracens), 
Others  fill  bottles  with  fresh  water. 

( Chanson  d' Antioche,  Chant  viii.  v.  482.) 

The  battle  opens  violently  ;  the  Tafurs  do  wonders. 
Armed  with  his  staff  hooped  with  iron,  Peter  the  Hermit  gives 
the  death-blow  to  every  Saracen  he  can  reach.  The  knights 
about  to  die  strike  their  breasts  in  confession  of  sin  and  swallow 
tufts  of  grass  to  simulate  the  sacred  host.  Epic  scenes  ! 

The  author  of  the  Gestes,  who  took  part  in  the  action,  writes 
as  follows  :  “  Innumerable  masses  of  warriors  were  seen  coming 
down  from  the  mountains  mounted  on  white  horses  and  pre¬ 
ceded  by  white  banners.  Our  men  could  not  imagine  who  these 
warriors  could  be  ;  but  at  last  they  realized  that  it  was  a 
succouring  army  sent  by  Christ  and  commanded  by  St.  George, 
St.  Mercurius,  and  St.  Demetrius.”  The  good  chronicler  adds  : 
“  This  is  no  lie  :  many  saw  it.” 

The  great  majority  of  the  Turks  were  massacred  :  their 
camp  with  abundant  supplies  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Christians,  who  were  henceforth  masters  of  the  whole  of  Syria, 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  finding  of  the  Lance  gave 
to  the  Crusaders  their  enthusiasm  and  ensured  their  victory. 
It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  prelates  in  the  army,  and  notably 
Adhémar  de  Monteil,  did  not  give  credence  to  the  revelation. 
From  the  first  they  suspected  a  fraud.  The  soldiers,  on  the 
contrary,  particularly  Raymond  of  Toulouse,  to  whom  Peter 
Barthélémy  was  chaplain,  gave  it  absolute  credence.  Eight 
months  went  by  and  the  discussions  between  the  partisans  of 
the  two  opposing  views  went  on  with  such  bitterness  that,  to 
make  an  end  of  it,  they  forced  Barthélémy  to  undergo  the  ordeal 

119 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


by  fire.  This  was  at  the  siege  of  Irkha,  the  8th  April  1099. 
The  unfortunate  priest  had  to  pass  through  some  burning 
bushes. 

Hardly  had  the  Christians  seen  him  emerge  from  the  fire, 
than  they  gave  forth  loud  shouts  of  enthusiasm.  They  hurled 
themselves  upon  him,  snatching  from  his  body  his  clothes  in 
rags,  and  pulling  out  his  hair  as  relics.  The  Count  of  Toulouse 
took  the  poor  priest  in  his  arms  and  carried  him  home  with 
him  ;  but  he  had  been  frightfully  burnt  in  passing  through 
the  flames,  and  died  of  his  wounds  two  days  later.  “  Those 
who,  for  the  honour  and  love  of  God,  had  venerated  the  lance,” 
says  Foucher  de  Chartres,  “  ceased,  reluctantly,  to  believe  in  it. 
Count  Raymond  kept  it  for  a  long  time,  until  he  lost  it,  I  know 
not  how.” 

The  happy  effect  had  been,  none  the  less,  produced. 

The  road  to  Jerusalem  was  open.  The  Holy  Land  had  once 
more  changed  masters.  The  Fatimites  of  Egypt,  driven  from 
Palestine  twenty  years  before  by  the  Turks,  had  made  haste 
to  profit  by  the  embarrassments  created  by  the  landing  of 
the  Crusaders,  in  recovering  their  lost  territories,  and  they  had 
just  re-entered  Jerusalem  (August  to  September  1098). 

The  Crusaders  were  again  arrested  in  their  march  by  the 
siege  of  Marra.  Here  the  horrors  of  famine  reappeared.  And 
this  was  to  be  the  case  every  time  the  great  Crusading  army 
remained  in  a  fixed  place.  The  provisions  which  the  country 
could  offer  were  exhausted  in  a  few  days  and  the  terrors  of 
famine  reappeared. 

Peter  the  Hermit  went  about  among  the  Crusaders  making 
unceasing  efforts  to  alleviate  their  suffering.  He  was  invested 
with  functions  best  suited  to  him,  those  of  treasurer  of  the 
poor. 

After  having  been  detained  some  time  still  at  the  siege  of 
Irkha,  where,  as  we  have  just  said,  Barthélémy  suffered  the 
ordeal  by  fire,  the  French  arrived  in  sight  of  Jerusalem — on 
the  1st  July  1099 — three  years  after  their  departure  ! 

How  describe  their  transports  at  the  sight  of  the  Holy 
City?  “The  pilgrims  forgot  their  fatigues,”  writes  Albert 
d’Aix,  “  and  hastened  their  steps.  Arriving  before  the  walls, 
they  burst  into  tears.” 

120 


THE  CRUSADES 


A  number  of  Crusaders,  however,  forgot  the  vow  they  had 
made,  not  to  approach  the  town  except  with  bare  feet. 

“  It  was  the  custom  among  us,”  writes  Raymond  d’Aguilers, 
“  that  whoever  should  first  enter  a  fortress  or  village  and  plant 
his  banner  there  should  become  its  master,  and  none  of  those 
who  came  after  him  should  dispute  his  possession  of  it.”  So 
during  the  last  night  a  considerable  number  of  Crusaders  set 
out  in  advance  to  go  and  occupy  the  mountain  region  and  the 
districts  bordering  the  river  Jordan.  Small  was  the  number 
of  whose  who,  preferring  to  conform  to  the  commands  of  God, 
advanced  towards  Jerusalem  barefooted.” 

The  town  was  surrounded  by  a  formidable  rampart.  There 
were  no  resources  for  a  siege.  The  bed  of  the  Cedron  was 
dried  up  ;  the  reservoirs  were  covered  over.  Once  more  the 
admirable  character  of  the  popular  part  of  the  army  showed 
of  what  exploits  it  was  capable. 

They  gathered  together  all  the  wood  they  could  find  in 
the  places  around,  and  made  from  it  a  great  number  of  ladders. 
On  the  seventh  day  of  the  siege,  at  dawn,  while  the  horns  were 
sounding,  the  ladders  were  put  up  against  the  walls,  and  with 
a  sublime  enthusiasm  the  French  threw  themselves  into  the 
assault.  Vain  efforts  !  From  the  top  of  the  ramparts  sorcerers 
were  casting  incantations  on  the  French  ;  but  it  is  not  to  their 
sorceries  that  we  attribute  the  check  of  this  first  attack  :  the 
walls  were  too  high.  The  besiegers  had  to  give  up  the  idea 
of  capturing  the  town  by  escalade.  And  they  set  to  work  to 
construct  machines  and  wooden  towers  the  height  of  the 
rampart.  But  with  what  difficulty  !  for  the  wood  had  to  be 
carried  far. 

The  town  was  taken  on  the  15th  July.  The  Saracens, 
writes  Foucher  de  Chartres,  had  attached  two  beams  to  the 
top  of  the  walls  and  used  them  as  rams  to  repel  the  assailants. 
But  what  they  had  done  for  defence  turned  to  their  injury. 
The  wooden  tower  having  been  brought  up  to  the  wall,  they 
managed  to  cut  the  ropes  from  which  the  beams  hung,  and 
these  became  a  bridge  leading  from  the  top  of  the  tower  to 
the  top  of  the  ramparts.  The  torches  flung  by  the  besiegers 
set  fire  to  the  wooden  citadel  on  the  wall,  and  the  fire  took  such 
proportions  that  the  defenders  could  not  stay  there.  On  the 

121 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Friday,  about  nine  o’clock  in  the  morning,  the  first  to  put  his 
foot  on  the  rampart,  planting  there  the  standard  of  the  Cross, 
was  one  Leuthold.  The  Saracens  fled  through  the  narrow 
streets.  Many  took  refuge  in  the  Temple  of  Solomon.  The 
building  was  full  of  them  and  even  the  roof  was  covered. 
The  Crusaders  made  of  them  a  frightful  carnage  ;  blood  filled 
the  Temple  a  foot  high,  and  the  Mohammedans  who  had  taken 
refuge  on  the  roof  were,  for  the  most  part,  killed  by  arrows  ; 
the  remainder  were  thrown  from  this  height  to  the  ground, 
where  the  heads  and  bones  of  these  unfortunates  were  broken. 

The  extermination  was  complete  ;  women  and  children, 
all  were  slaughtered.  In  the  streets  were  seen  piles  of  heads 
and  severed  feet  and  hands.  Many  of  these  unhappy  wretches, 
and  many  women,  were  killed  with  horrible  refinements  of 
cruelty.  And  everything  was  given  over  to  plunder.  The 
Crusaders  soon  noticed  that  some  Saracens  had  swallowed 
“  besans  ” — or,  to  put  it  better,  Byzantine  gold  pieces — to  save 
them  from  their  conquerors  :  they  set  themselves  then  to  split 
open  their  abdomens  and  search  among  the  entrails  to  get  out 
the  pieces  of  gold  ;  then  as  this  process  proved  too  slow  for 
them,  they  piled  up  the  corpses  on  immense  pyres  and  burned 
them  up.  The  Crusaders,  stooping,  searched  among  the  ashes 
for  the  golden  “  besans.” 

They  were  enabled  by  the  indications  of  a  Syrian  to  find  a 
piece  of  the  true  Cross.  The  French  enclosed  it  in  a  case  of 
gold  and  silver,  and  the  precious  relic  was  carried  in  procession 
to  the  Temple. 

On  the  22nd  July  1099,  eight  days  after  the  capture  of 
Jerusalem,  Duke  Godfrey  de  Bouillon  was  proclaimed  Baron 
of  the  Holy  Sepulchre.  The  pious  knight  refused  the  title  of 
King  :  he  was  unwilling  to  wear  a  crown  of  gold  when  the 
Son  of  God,  the  King  of  Kings,  had  worn  a  crown  of  thorns. 
And  one  can  truly  say  of  the  choice  made  by  the  Crusaders 
that  it  had  fallen  on  the  most  worthy.  The  nobility  of  his 
race,  writes  Foucher  de  Chartres,  his  military  courage,  his 
gentleness,  patience,  and  modesty,  marked  him  out  for  the 
suffrages  of  the  army. 

The  French  were  still  in  the  intoxication  of  triumph  when 
they  learnt,  at  the  beginning  of  August,  of  the  arrival  of  a 
122 


THE  CRUSADES 


great  army  commanded  by  the  Fatimite  Caliph  of  Egypt. 
It  was  made  up  of  Ethiopians  and  Bedouin  hordes.  A  new 
victory  under  the  walls  of  Ascalon  (12th  August  1099)  assured 
definitely  to  the  Franks  the  Empire  of  Palestine. 

This  first  Crusade  had  cost  the  lives  of  500,000  or  600,000 
men. 

The  Kingdom  of  Jerusalem  was  then  placed  under  the  rule 
of  Godfrey  de  Bouillon,  who  took  the  humble  title  of  Advocate 
of  the  Holy  Sepulchre. 

Baldwin,  Godfrey’s  brother,  was  proclaimed  Count  of 
Odessa  ;  Boémond,  the  Prince  of  Tarento,  received  the  princi¬ 
pality  of  Antioch  ;  finally  Bertrand,  the  son  of  Raymond  of 
Toulouse,  was  before  long  made  Count  of  Tripoli. 

This  Frank  empire,  so  suddenly  set  up  on  the  borders  of 
Asia  Minor,  was  moreover  very  quickly  organized.  The  army 
of  Crusading  knights  had  not  ceased  to  be  organized  after  the 
feudal  manner  with  the  framework  and  organization  we  have 
described  in  France.  This  same  organization  was  established 
en  bloc  on  the  slopes  of  Lebanon.  The  coast  towns  developed 
a  prosperous  life  in  consequence  of  the  relations  established 
with  the  West  ;  pilgrims  to  the  Holy  Places  became  more 
and  more  numerous  ;  finally,  the  Orders,  half  religious,  half 
military,  the  Templars  and  the  Hospitallers,  were  founded  to 
defend  the  conquest. 

Peter  the  Hermit  returned  to  Europe  in  1099  or  1100. 
He  was  loaded  with  relics.  He  founded  a  monastery  in  the 
suburbs  of  Huy,  near  Liège,  where  he  died  with  the  title  of 
Prior  on  the  8th  July  1115.  Those  of  the  other  Crusaders 
who  returned  home  also  prided  themselves  on  a  precious  booty. 
Returning  from  a  later  Crusade,  Count  Arnold  of  Gumes  will 
be  carrying  hung  from  his  neck  in  a  little  silver  reliquary  a 
hair  from  the  beard  of  Jesus  Christ.  Before  long  there  will 
be  exposed  to  the  devotion  of  the  Faithful  some  milk  of  the 
Virgin,  and  in  a  little  phial  of  opaque  glass  a  little  of  the  “  dark¬ 
ness  ”  which  formed  one  of  the  seven  plagues  of  Egypt. 

During  a  century  and  a  half,  Crusades  are  to  succeed  one 
another  ;  but  there  will  not  be  seen  again  the  splendid  popular 
enthusiasm  of  the  Crusade  of  Urban  II  and  Peter  the  Hermit. 

Saint  Bernard,  the  eloquent  Abbot  of  Clairvaux,  will  preach 

123 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


a  new  Crusade,  no  longer  to  the  masses  of  the  people,  but  to 
prelates  and  Kings.  From  this  moment  these  distant  expedi¬ 
tions  change  character  and  become  a  question  of  individual 
and  royal  faith,  and  at  the  same  time  of  sovereign  authority 
and  administration  ;  which  will  not  be  able  to  replace  the 
invincible  enthusiasm  of  the  common  faith  or  give  feudal 
cohesion  to  the  armies  which  had  lost  it.  From  one  Crusade 
to  another — -there  were  still  seven  of  them — their  decline  is 
manifested.  Popes,  kings,  knights  are  still  interested  in  them  ; 
they  are  proclaimed  in  brilliant  tournaments  in  which  vows 
to  ladies,  with  the  peacock  or  golden  pheasant,  mingle  with 
oaths  to  God  and  the  Apostles  :  the  mass  of  the  people  hold 
themselves  aloof  from  them. 

The  first  Crusade  had  the  greatest  influence  on  the  social 
transformation  which  had  become  a  necessity  in  France  at 
the  end  of  the  eleventh  century.  We  have  seen  how  the 
feudal  lord  had  played  out  his  part.  After  having  been  of  a 
utility  which  cannot  be  sufficiently  emphasized,  his  activity 
was  becoming  injurious.  A  great  part  of  this  bellicose  aris¬ 
tocracy  passed  over  to  the  East  ;  it  perished  or  founded  new 
fiefs  there. 

To  meet  the  expenses  of  the  Crusade  a  number  of  lords 
had  sold  their  domains  and  pledged  their  lands.  Their  wives, 
left  in  the  castles,  are  in  great  distress. 

We  have  great  need  of  gain, 

For,  by  God,  there  is  within  neither  gold  nor  silver, 

We  are  eaten  up  by  usury  and  tortured  by  creditors. 

(. Baudoin  de  Sebourg ,  Chant  xviii.  v.  628.) 

Philip  I  profited  greatly  from  this  distress.  We  see  him 
buying  Bourges  for  60,000  sous  from  Eude  Arpin,  who  set  out 
to  the  conquest  of  the  Holy  Land  with  Gozlin  de  Courtenay 
and  Milo  de  Bray.  This  process  was  repeated  again  and  again. 
In  the  absence  of  powerful  vassals  the  King  insinuated  his 
authority  in  their  domains.  More  and  more  the  monarchy 
tends  to  become  national. 

Sources. — Bongars,  Gesta  Dei  per  Francos,  1612,  2  vols.  ;  Michaud, 
Bibliothèque  des  Croisades,  1829,  4  vols,  (the  fourth  volume  includes  the 
Arab  chronicles,  translated  by  Reinaud)  ;  Collection  de  V histoire  des  Croisades, 
published  by  the  Acad,  des  Inscriptions,  since  1841  ;  Publications  of  the 
Société  de  VOrient  latin,  Paris  and  Geneva,  since  1876. 

124 


THE  CRUSADES 


The  most  interesting  chroniclers  to  read  on  the  First  Crusade  are 
Guibert  de  Nogent  ;  the  anonymous  author  of  the  Gesta  Francorum , 
doubtless  a  Norman  of  Italy  ;  Foucher  de  Chartres  ;  Raymond  d’Aguilers, 
Canon  of  Puy  ;  Albert  d’Aix  ;  Baudri  de  Bourgueil,  Archbishop  of  Dol  ; 
the  Monk  of  St.  Riem  de  Reims  ;  Pierre  Tudebode,  priest  of  Civray,  in 
Poitou  ;  finally,  the  account  by  Anna  Comnenus,  the  daughter  of  the 
Emperor  Alexius,  in  the  Alexiade ,  the  history  of  her  father’s  reign. 

In  spite  of  his  great  reputation,  William  of  Tyre  does  not  represent 
an  original  source. 

La  Chanson  d’Antioche ,  ed.  P.  Paris,  1848,  2  vols.  ;  Les  Chansons  de 
Croisades ,  with  their  tunes,  ed.  Bédier  and  Aubry  ;  Assises  du  royaume 
de  Jerusalem ,  published  by  Beugnol  in  the  Collection  de  l’histoire  des 
Croisades ,  1841-43. 

Historical  Works. — Sybel,  Gesch.  des  ersten  Kreuzziiges,  2nd  ed., 
1881  ;  Kugler,  Gesch.  der  Kreuzziige,  2nd  ed.,  1891  ;  Roricht,  Gesch.  der 
Kreuzziige  im  Unriss,  1898  ;  Prutz,  Kulturgesch.  der  Kreuzziige ,  1883  ; 
Hagenmeyer,  Le  vrai  et  le  faux  Pierre  V Ermite,  translated  by  Furcy-Ray- 
naud,  1883  ;  L.  Brehier,  L’Eglise  et  l’Orient  au  Moyen  Age ,  2nd  ed.,  1907  ; 
Gaston  Dodu,  Histoire  des  Institutions  monarchiques  dans  le  royaume  latin 
de  Jerusalem ,  1099-1291 ,  1894  ;  F.  Chalandon,  Essai  sur  le  règne  d’Alexis 
1er  Comnène,  1900. 


125 


CHAPTER  VI 


A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ARMOUR  :  LOUIS  LE  GROS 

Picture  of  Louis  le  Gros.  His  struggle  against  the  “  hobereaux  ” 
in  their  stone  keeps.  Stephen  de  Garlande,  seneschal  and  chan¬ 
cellor.  His  fall  in  1127.  The  government  of  the  Abbot  Suger. 

The  Abbey  of  St.  Denis  the  cradle  of  Gothic  Art.  The  Oriflamme. 
Rising  of  the  nation  at  the  summons  of  Louis  VI.  The  Germans 
beat  a  retreat.  The  murder  of  Charles  the  Good,  Count 
of  Flanders.  Louis  le  Gros  has  William  Clito  appointed  his 
successor.  Conflicts  with  England.  Henry  Beauclerc  marries 
his  daughter  to  Geoffrey  le  Bel,  heir  of  the  Count  of  Anjou. 

Death  of  Louis  le  Gros. 

THE  progress  which  the  Crusades  ensured  to  the  royal 
power  was  still  going  on  at  the  accession  of  Louis  VI. 
He  succeeded  his  father,  Philip  I,  who  had  died 
towards  the  end  of  July  1108.  In  fact  he  was  ruling  from  the 
beginning  of  the  twelfth  century. 

He  was  born  in  1081. 

Louis  VI,  called  le  Gros,  was  of  powerful  stature.  He  had  a 
slim  figure  ;  but  with  advancing  age  he  became  so  stout  that 
towards  fifty  it  was  only  with  difficulty  that  he  heaved  him¬ 
self  up  on  horseback,  and  he  was  obliged,  according  to  the 
chroniclers,  to  keep  himself  44  upright  ”  in  bed,  which  means, 
no  doubt,  that  he  was  obliged  to  keep  a  sitting  position. 

His  face  was  livid,  with  such  a  striking  pallor  that  it  was 
attributed  to  an  attempt  at  poisoning  made  on  him  in  his 
youth  by  Bertrade,  his  stepmother.  Ordericus  Vitalis,  who 
saw  him  at  the  Council  of  Reims  (October  1119),  describes  him 
as  follows  :  44  He  was  eloquent,  big,  pale,  and  fat.”  Suger, 
the  Abbot  of  St.  Denis,  boasts  his  merry  humour.  44  So 
amiable  and  good,”  says  Suger,  “as  to  appear  stupid.”  Add 
to  these  characteristics  a  devouring  activity,  64  even  though  the 
weight  of  his  paunch  might  have  kept  him  in  bed.” 

126 


A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ARMOUR 

This  prince,  who  did  so  much  for  the  common  people,  for 
artisans  and  peasants,  was  above  all  a  soldier.  Follow  him 
along  the  steep  roads,  furrowed  with  swamps,  bordered  by 
thickets  and  quickset  hedges,  on  his  strong  charger.  He  has 
on  his  head  an  egg-shaped  helmet  of  burnished  brass  ;  his 
broad  shoulders  wear  a  hooded  tunic  of  leather  plaited  with 
iron  rings,  and  he  holds  in  his  vigorous  hand  a  large  sword 
whose  golden  pommel  encloses  a  tooth  of  St.  Denis.  Rising 
with  the  dawn,  he  is  indefatigable  in  imposing  justice  and 
peace.  “You  would  have  seen  the  noble  youth  riding  through 
the  country  with  as  many  knights  as  he  could  collect,  at  one 
hour  in  the  marches  of  Berry,  at  another  in  the  marches  of 
Auvergne,  and  none  the  less  soon  in  the  Vexin  when  there  was 
need  ”  ( Grandes  Chroniques). 

We  have  see  how  the  feudal  nobles,  after  having  organized 
their  own  domains  in  paternal  fashion,  spread  themselves  abroad 
outside  them  in  repeated  violences.  They  knew  no  other 
occupation  than  the  redoubtable  game  of  arms,  and  continued 
to  practise  it  ;  were  they  not 

the  rich  barons  of  France 
Who  desire  war  more  than  a  youth  his  love? 

( Graindor  de  Douai.) 

Supported  by  his  peasants  and  his  militia  of  burgesses,  by 
the  knights  who  were  his  immediate  vassals,  and  by  the 
soldiery  furnished  by  the  Abbey  of  St.  Denis,  Louis  VI  reduced 
in  turn  the  turbulent  lords  of  Coucy,  of  Montmorency,  of 
Corbeil,  and  of  Mantes,  and  tried  to  destroy  their  keeps. 
These  keeps,  says  Suger,  planted  in  the  heart  of  the  Ile-de- 
France,  “  were  disembowelling  ”  the  King  ( regem  eviscerabant). 

In  attacking  the  castles,  Louis  was  seen  in  the  front  rank 
like  the  bravest  of  his  soldiers.  At  the  siege  of  the  castle 
occupied  by  Dreux,  Count  of  Mouchy-le-Châtel,  he  had  suc¬ 
ceeded  in  enticing  the  redoubtable  baron  with  his  men  out  of 
the  enclosure  ;  then  suddenly  facing  about,  he  led  on  his  own 
men,  and  striking  right  and  left,  jostling  the  besieged,  he 
penetrates  with  his  followers  into  the  interior  courts.  The 
castle  is  in  flames  ;  but  in  the  midst  of  the  flames  he  pursues 
his  attack,  easily  distinguished  by  his  herculean  strength  and 
his  tall  figure.  In  the  heat  of  the  fight  he  is  bathed  in  per- 

127 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


spiration,  and  in  cooling  down  he  develops  a  hoarseness  which 
it  will  take  a  long  time  to  cure.  After  this,  Louis  makes  his 
appearance  in  the  district  of  Bourges,  where  Aimon  II,  called 
Vaire- Vache,  has  taken  possession  of  the  castle  of  Germigny- 
sur-Aubois,  belonging  to  his  nephew  Archambaut  de  Bourbon. 
From  the  fortress  Aimon  and  his  men  spread  over  the  neigh¬ 
bouring  country,  ravaging  it.  The  King’s  troops  surrounded  the 
place.  Aimon  saw  no  salvation  except  in  the  royal  mercy. 
“  He  had  no  other  resource,”  says  Suger,  “  than  to  go  and 
throw  himself  at  the  King’s  feet.  Louis  kept  the  castle  and 
took  Aimon  to  the  Ile-de-France,  to  be  tried  by  the  lords  of  his 
Court.”  “  Thus,”  says  Suger,  “  the  King  put  an  end  by  dint 
of  fatigue  and  money  to  the  hardships  and  oppression  which 
a  great  number  of  people  had  had  to  endure.  He  formed  after 
this  the  habit  of  making  often,  and  always  with  the  same 
clemency,  such  expeditions.” 

Tragic  and  splendid  was  the  siege  of  Meung-sur-Loire  (1103). 
The  royal  troops  had  made  themselves  masters  of  the  fortifica¬ 
tions.  The  keep,  in  which  the  defenders  had  taken  refuge,  was 
threatened  by  the  flames  ;  then  the  besieged,  to  the  number 
of  sixty,  threw  themselves  after  their  lord,  from  the  top  of  the 
tower,  to  the  ground,  where  those  who  were  not  killed  by  the 
fall  were  pierced  by  the  lances  or  the  arrows  of  the  besiegers. 

The  famous  expedition  against  the  Château  duPuisettook 
place  in  1111.  The  Château  du  Puiset,  in  Beauce,  had  been 
built  by  Queen  Constance  for  the  defence  of  the  country. 
The  castellans  who  had  been  installed  there  had  soon  begun 
to  act  like  masters.  Hugh  du  Puiset  devastated  the  country 
and  its  inhabitants,  conducting  himself  like  a  mere  bandit. 
“  He  was  handsome,”  says  Ordericus  Vitalis,  “  but  wicked.” 

Suger  applies  to  him  the  verse  of  Lucan  : 

Et  docilis  Sullam  sceleris  vicisse  magistrum. 

(Anxious  to  surpass  Sulla,  master  of  crime.) 

( Pharsale ,  liv.  i.  v.  326.) 

He  killed  with  his  own  hands  the  seneschal,  Ansel  de  Gar- 
lande.  Louis  summoned  an  assembly  at  Melun,  in  which 
complaints  abounded  against  the  “devouring  wolf”:  these 
are  Suger’s  expressions.  The  King  took  as  the  base  of  his 
operations  the  monastery  of  Toury,  in  Beauce,  near  Joinville, 
128 


A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ARMOUR 


of  which  Suger  was  Abbot.  And  we  are  about  to  see  the  man 
of  religion  acting  as  a  soldier. 

By  order  of  the  King,  Suger  put  into  the  abbey  a  large 
garrison  and  established  there  dépôts  of  arms  and  ammunition. 
When  all  is  ready  the  King  arrives  with  his  men.  Hugh  du 
Puiset  refuses  to  open  the  gates  of  his  lair.  There  follows  a 
siege  in  due  form.  Suger  gives  us  a  description  of  it,  unfortu¬ 
nately  too  literary.  The  besieged  showered  projectiles  on  those 
who  were  pressing  them  on  all  sides.  To  replace  their  broken 
shields,  the  men  covered  themselves  with  planks,  boards, 
blinds,  and  doors.  We  had  had,  writes  the  Abbot  of  St. 
Denis,  several  carts  filled  with  a  great  quantity  of  dry  wood, 
mixed  with  fat  and  coagulated  blood,  so  as  to  furnish  ready  food 
for  the  flames  and  to  burn  these  unhappy  44  devotees  of  the 
devil.”  These  carts,  having  been  set  on  fire,  were  pushed 
against  the  castle.  But  it  was  formidably  defended.  Swift 
horsemen  rode  up  and  down  the  surrounding  roads  giving 
the  death-blow  to  those  who  tried  to  approach.  The  hope  of 
carrying  the  place  seemed  gone,  when  a  priest  was  seen,  bare¬ 
headed,  without  a  helmet  to  protect  his  brow,  with  no  weapon 
but  a  wretched  plank,  climbing  up  the  escarpment  and  arriving 
at  the  palisade  of  the  first  enclosure.  Hiding  himself  under 
the  shelters  which  were  fitted  to  the  loopholes,  he  begins  to  tear 
away  its  stakes.  Seeing  his  attempt  succeed,  he  signs  to  those 
who  remain  hesitating  below.  At  his  call  a  handful  of  assail¬ 
ants  throw  themselves  against  the  palisade  ;  it  is  torn  away. 
Hugh  and  the  principal  defenders  of  the  place  take  refuge  in  the 
keep,  where  the  proud  baron  soon  capitulates. 

The  King  imprisoned  him  in  the  tower  of  Château-Landon  ; 
he  put  up  for  sale  the  furnishings  and  treasures  of  Puiset, 
whose  towers  and  walls  were  rased  to  the  ground,  “  which  filled 
with  joy,”  says  Ordericus  Vitalis,  44  the  peasants  of  the  neigh¬ 
bourhood  and  travellers.” 

In  1128  Hugh  du  Puiset  set  out  for  the  Holy  Land,  where 
he  acted  like  a  brave  soldier  and  founded  the  glorious  dynasty 
of  the  Counts  of  Jaffa. 

The  task  of  Louis  le  Gros,  for  ever  recurring,  was  the 
more  arduous  as  the  English  King,  Henry  I  (Beauclerc), 
supported  the  rebellious  barons. 

I  129 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Of  these  feudal  castles  become  44  places  of  offence,”  Louis 
le  Gros  took  or  bought  some  ;  and  rendered  the  owners  of  others 
favourable  to  him.  Philip  I  had  made  Guy  de  Montlhéry, 
called  le  Rouge  (the  Red),  Count  of  Rochefort,  his  seneschal, 
an  office  in  which  the  new  King  retained  him  in  order  to  assure 
to  himself  the  quiet  possession  of  the  tower  of  Montlhéry,  as 
well  as  of  the  castles  of  Rochefort  and  Châteaufort.  Louis 
had  gone  so  far  as  to  consent  to  marry  the  daughter  of  Guy 
le  Rouge,  though  she  was  not  yet  of  marriageable  age.  To 
Ansel  and  Guillaume  de  Garlande  there  succeeded  Stephen  de 
Garlande,  who  wielded  the  greatest  power  which  had  ever 
been  found  in  the  hands  of  a  single  royal  official,  since  he 
added  the  functions  of  chancellor  to  those  of  seneschal.  44  How 
great  is  your  power  !  55  the  Archbishop  of  Tours  said  to  him, 
44  and  what  an  accumulation  of  wealth  lies  in  your  hands  ! 
You  sit  as  first  among  the  Palatines  and  dispose  at  your  pleasure 
of  all  the  kingdom.”  Stephen  de  Garlande  has  left  the  reputa¬ 
tion  of  an  adroit  man,  skilful  in  cultivating  his  own  interests 
and  those  of  his  family,  rather  than  a  statesman.  He  was 
superseded  in  1127  by  Suger,  Abbot  of  St.  Denis.  This  is  a 
new  orientation  of  the  royal  Court,  and  it  is  remarkable  that 
it  should  have  been  brought  about  under  the  rule  of  the  most 
soldierly  of  all  the  kings.  The  clerics  are  to  take  precedence 
over  the  soldiers.  Following  Suger  there  is  to  be  a  brilliant 
series  of  Palatines  :  Goshuin,  Bishop  of  Soissons  ;  Geoffrey, 
Bishop  of  Chartres  ;  Stephen,  Bishop  of  Paris  ;  Bartholomew, 
Bishop  of  Laon  ;  Renaud,  Archbishop  of  Reims. 

Suger,  the  Abbot  of  St.  Denis,  was  one  of  the  greatest 
ministers  France  has  ever  known.  He  was  of  low  birth  and 
small  stature.  44  Little  in  body  and  little  in  race,”  as  runs 
the  epitaph  composed  for  him  by  Simon  Chèvre  d’Or.  He 
was  bald.  His  black  and  piercing  eyes  shone  in  an  emaciated 
face.  44  What  one  must  admire  most  in  him,”  writes  his 
biographer,  the  monk  William  of  St.  Denis,  44  is  that  nature 
should  have  lodged  a  heart  so  strong,  so  fine,  so  great,  in  a 
body  so  frail  and  thin.” 

Suger  practised  fasting  and  macerations  ;  his  body,  already 
so  spare,  was  further  reduced  by  the  severest  possible  régime, 
but  he  had  a  lively,  even  mischievous,  temperament,  and,  like 
130 


A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ARMOUR 


Francis  of  Assisi,  numbered  gaiety  among  the  highest  virtues. 
When  with  others  he  refused  no  kind  of  food  and  accepted 
wine. 

“  There  was  one  of  the  gifts  of  heaven,”  writes  a  contem¬ 
porary,  44  which  was  refused  him  :  namely,  the  grace  of  becoming 
fatter  as  abbot  of  St.  Denis  than  he  had  been  as  a  simple  monk  ; 
while  others,  no  matter  how  thin  they  were  before,  no  sooner 
hold  the  abbatial  cross  than  their  cheeks  and  stomach  and 
even  their  hearts  begin  to  put  on  fat.” 

His  cell  was  a  small  room,  bare  and  simple,  in  the  splendid 
monastery  which  his  diligent  activity  had  enlarged  and  adorned. 
He  lay  there  on  straw  covered  with  a  coarse  woollen  stuff  in 
place  of  sheets  ;  but  to  hide  his  asceticism  a  coverlet  was  thrown 
over  it  during  the  day.  And  shut  up  in  his  silent  cell  he 
devoted  long  hours  to  the  study  of  authors  sacred  and  profane. 
He  would  recite  by  heart  twenty,  and  even  thirty,  verses  of 
Horace,  says  the  monk  William.  He  had  a  profound  know¬ 
ledge  of  history  and  could  enumerate  exactly  the  families  of 
the  princes  who  had  ruled  over  France. 

After  these  hours  of  reading  and  meditation,  Suger  took 
pleasure  in  giving  to  others,  in  lively  discourse,  the  fruits  of 
his  labour.  For  he  was  a  charming  talker  and  had  the  attrac¬ 
tive  art  of  witty  anecdote.  Sometimes  he  went  on  with  his 
talks  into  the  middle  of  the  night.  He  had  an  engaging 
eloquence  and  the  gift  of  persuasion,  and  expressed  himself 
with  equal  ease  in  French  and  Latin. 

44  I  have  sometimes  seen,”  writes  William  again,  44  the 
King  of  France,  surrounded  by  the  members  of  his  Government, 
standing  respectfully  before  this  great  man  seated  on  a  stool  ; 
he  dictating  to  them  useful  precepts  as  to  inferiors,  and  they 
hanging  on  his  lips,  listening  to  his  words  with  the  deepest 
attention.” 

Suger  was  the  happy  complement  of  Louis  VI.  The  King 
was  a  man  of  action,  always  ready  to  heave  his  enormous  body 
on  to  the  back  of  a  big  horse  ;  eager  for  great  blows  of  the 
sword  and  breathless  assaults.  Suger  was  the  man  for  agree¬ 
ments,  for  negotiations,  skilful  at  forming  happy  and  harmoni¬ 
ous  settlements.  44  The  moment  disturbance  showed  itself 
in  the  kingdom,”  says  his  biographer,  44  and  wars  broke  out, 

181 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Suger  appeared  as  the  contriver  of  concord,  the  most  courageous 
mediator  of  peace.” 

Under  his  influence,  and  with  the  protection  afforded  by 
Louis  VI,  grateful  for  the  education  he  had  received  there, 
the  Abbey  of  St.  Denis  shone  with  an  unparalleled  brilliance. 
By  its  beauty  and  magnificence  it  became  truly  the  royal  abbey, 
the  radiant  centre  of  the  history  of  art  in  the  twelfth  century. 
Builders  and  carpenters,  workers  in  glass,  and  sculptors  in 
stone,  were  summoned  thither  from  all  parts  of  France.  We 
may  say  that,  rebuilt  by  the  efforts  of  Suger,  St.  Denis  was 
the  glorious  cradle  of  the  Gothic  style  in  all  its  manifestations 
— architecture,  sculpture,  painting,  the  art  of  the  worker  in  glass 
and  of  the  goldsmith  ;  from  there  it  spread  all  over  Europe. 
The  stained-glass  windows  of  St.  Denis  at  once  realized  perfec¬ 
tion,  with  their  circular  medallions  grouped  in  a  luminous 
border,  with  their  background  of  a  blue  so  fine  and  pure,  like 
the  azure  of  the  heavens,  in  which  the  figures  seemed  to  breathe. 
The  most  precious  were  destroyed  by  imbecile  hands  during 
the  Revolution,  but  what  remains  still  represents  the  perfec¬ 
tion  of  this  wonderful  art. 

The  Abbot  of  Cluny  came  to  visit  the  splendid  building. 
44  This  man,”  he  cried,  speaking  of  Suger,  44  condemns  us  all  ; 
he  builds  not  for  himself,  as  we  do,  but  for  God  alone.” 

St.  Bernard,  the  austere  Abbot  of  Clairvaux,  however, 
criticised  the  pomp  with  which  Suger  had  decorated  the  build¬ 
ings  which  surrounded  him,  while  remaining  simple  in  his  life, 
poor  in  his  cell.  44  The  monastery,”  he  says,  44  is  full  of  knights  ; 
it  is  open  to  women  ;  business  is  transacted  there  ;  disputes 
break  out  ;  it  is  true  that  there  they  duly  render  to  Cæsar  that 
which  is  Cæsar’s,  but  do  they  render  to  God  that  which  is 
God’s  ?  ” 

It  is  a  criticism  which  forms,  to  our  minds,  eloquent  praise  : 
the  Abbey  of  St.  Denis  had  become,  under  Suger,  not  only 
the  home  of  the  monk,  but  the  living  anthill  which  swarmed 
round  the  great  statesman. 

Still,  Suger  seems  to  have  responded  to  the  criticism  of 
St.  Bernard  :  he  introduced  into  his  abbey  reforms  which 
restored  it  to  a  simpler  and  more  religious  way  of  life. 

44  The  Emperor  Henry,”  says  Suger, — he  means  the  German 


132 


A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ARMOUR 


Emperor  Henry  V, — “  had  had  for  a  long  time  at  the  bottom 
of  his  heart  a  strong  resentment  against  the  lord  Louis  because 
in  his  kingdom,  at  Reims,  in  full  council,  the  lord  Calixtus 
(the  Pope)  had  struck  him,  Henry,  with  anathema.  Before 
the  death  of  the  lord  Pope  then,  this  Emperor  got  together  as 
big  an  army  as  he  could,  then  by  the  advice  of  the  English 
King  Henry,  whose  daughter  he  had  married,  and  who,  on 
his  side,  was  making  war  on  the  French  King,  he  pretended 
to  march  to  another  point,  but  intended  to  attack  unexpectedly 
the  city  of  Reims.” 

At  this  news,  Louis  VI  took  from  the  altar  of  St.  Denis 
the  banner  of  the  Counts  of  the  Vexin.  Thus,  he  thought, 
St.  Denis,  the  patron  of  the  Gauls,  would  fight  among  his 
soldiers.  It  was  a  widespread  belief  that  the  glorious  martyr 
would  never  fail  to  come  directly  to  the  assistance  of  the  French 
when  the  soil  of  their  country  was  invaded.  After  having 
thus  taken  the  venerated  standard  from  the  altar,  Louis  VI 
at  the  head  of  his  troops  hastened  to  meet  the  enemy. 

The  ceremony  is  reported  in  identical  terms  both  by  Suger 
and  by  a  charter  of  Louis  VI. 

The  famous  oriflamme,  for  it  is  a  question  of  that,  was,  then, 
originally  the  banner  of  the  Counts  of  the  Vexin,  and  it  is  by 
this  title  that  the  Kings  of  France  came  to  take  it  from  the 
altar  to  carry  it  into  battle  :  as  Counts  of  the  Vexin  the  Kings 
of  France  were  vassals  or  advocates  of  St.  Denis.  The  oldest 
description  of  the  oriflamme  dates  from  the  reign  of  Philip 
Augustus.  It  is  found  in  the  Philippide  of  William  le  Breton  : 
a  little  banner  composed  of  a  simple  silk  tissue  of  bright  red, 
fringed  with  green,  and  attached  to  a  staff  of  silver  gilt — a 
banner  like  those  carried  in  religious  processions. 

Guillebert  de  Metz,  who  saw  it  on  the  altar  of  St.  Denis, 
gives  an  exact  description  of  it  : 

“  Likewise  the  King  of  France  alone  carries  the  oriflamme 
in  battle  ;  it  is  a  staff  all  golden,  to  which  is  attached  a  banner 
of  vermilion,  which  they  have  the  custom  of  going  to  seek  in 
the  Church  of  my  lord  Saint  Denis,  with  great  solemnity  and 
devotion.  ...” 

“  The  oriflamme,”  says  Guillebert  again,  “is  a  vermilion 
banner  with  five  fringes,  bordered  with  green  tassels  (not  golden, 

133 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


as  say  the  chansons  de  geste)  ;  it  is  to  be  carried  above  and  higher 
than  the  royal  banners.  You  can  believe  me,  for  I  have,  in  my 
time,  seen  two  of  them  on  the  altar  of  the  glorious  martyr,  one 
on  each  side  of  the  altar  ;  and  they  had  as  handles  two  little 
staffs  of  silver  gilt,  from  each  of  which  hung  a  vermilion  banner, 
one  of  which  was  called  the  banner  of  Charlemagne.” 

They  had  then  made  a  replica  of  the  oriflamme,  so  as  to 
have  pendants  for  both  sides  of  the  altar,  and  also  no  doubt 
so  as  not  to  expose  the  original  too  often  to  the  perils  of  battle. 

A  final  detail  about  the  oriflamme  is  given  to  us  by  the 
monks  of  St.  Denis  :  44  And  when  he  (the  King)  departs  from  the 
Church  (of  St.  Denis,  whence  he  has  taken  the  oriflamme),  he 
ought  to  go  straight  to  the  place  in  which  he  is  staying,  turning 
neither  to  right  nor  left  for  any  other  business  ”  (Grandes 
Chroniques). 

In  answer  to  the  summons  of  Louis  le  Gros  against  the 
German  Emperor,  people  from  all  parts  flocked  round  the 
King  (August  1124).  Adversaries  of  the  dynasty  like  Thibaud 
de  Chartres,  hastened  to  get  equipment  and  range  themselves 
and  their  men  under  the  old  oriflamme.  The  great  nobles  of 
the  kingdom  ranged  their  troops  in  order  of  battle  under  the 
eyes  of  the  King.  The  description  which  follows  is  interesting 
to  note.  It  is  like  that  of  the  armies  on  march  in  the  chansons 
de  geste ,  then  in  all  their  glory.  One  would  imagine  that  one 
was  reading  the  famous  description  of  the  44  echelons  ”  into 
which  Charlemagne  divided  his  army  at  Roncevaux.  The 
first  echelon  was  composed  of  the  men  of  Reims  and  of  Châlons, 
60,000  horse  and  foot  ;  then  came  those  of  Laon  and  Soissons, 
equal  in  number  ;  the  third  echelon  was  formed  by  the  men 
of  Orleans,  by  those  of  Étampes,  and  by  the  Parisians,  to 
whom  were  joined  numerous  troops  of  the  Abbey  of  St.  Denis. 
44  With  them,”  says  the  King,  44  shall  I  fight  ;  they  are  of  my 
household  and  I  of  theirs.”  So  speaks  Charlemagne  in  Roland. 
Thibaud  de  Chartres  and  Hugh  de  Troyes  conducted  the  fourth 
division.  The  Grandes  Chroniques  have  here  a  curious  observa¬ 
tion  :  Count  Thibaud  44  maintained  war  as  an  ally  of  the  King 
of  England  against  King  Louis  ;  at  the  same  time  he  had  come, 
for  the  sake  of  the  kingdom’s  need  against  the  foreign  nations.” 
For  the  French  of  the  twelfth  century  the  German  Emperor 
184 


A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ARMOUR 


was  a  stranger,  but  not  the  King  of  England,  a  French  prince. 
The  fifth  division  was  under  the  orders  of  Hugh  the  Peaceful, 
Duke  of  Burgundy,  and  William,  Count  of  Nevers.  The  King 
decided  that  this  division  should  form  the  vanguard.  The 
excellent  Count  Raoul  de  Vermandois,  cousin  to  the  King, 
had  arrived  with  his  men  of  St.  Quentin  and  the  neighbouring 
country.  He  was  the  son  of  Hugh  the  Great,  brother  of 
Philip  I,  of  that  Hugh  who,  with  Suger,  was  the  principal 
adviser  of  Louis  VI.  He  formed  a  sixth  division,  which  Louis 
le  Gros  placed  on  the  right  wing.  The  inhabitants  of  Ponthieu, 
the  people  of  Amiens  and  Beauvais,  the  seventh  division, 
formed  the  left  wing. 

The  Count  of  Flanders,  Charles  the  Good,  having  been 
warned  too  late,  had  not  been  able  to  collect  more  than  10,000 
combatants.  He  would  have  brought  three  times  the  number 
had  he  been  told  in  time.  This  eighth  echelon  formed  the 
rearguard. 

Finally,  the  Duke  of  Aquitaine,  William  VII,  the  Count 
of  Brittany,  Conan  III,  and  Foulque  le  Jeune  (the  Young), 
the  bellicose  Count  of  Anjou,  displayed  an  ardour  all  the  greater 
because  the  distance  they  had  to  come  to  join  the  King  had 
not  allowed  them,  for  want  of  time,  to  collect  important 
contingents. 

And  hear  how  these  knights  hold  forth,  like  a  living  echo  it 
would  seem,  of  the  epic  poems  and  especially  of  the  Roland  : 
“  Let  us  march  with  courage  against  the  enemy  ;  that  they  may 
not  go  back  to  their  homes  unpunished,  they  who  have  dared 
to  threaten  France,  the  suzerain  of  the  nations.  Let  them 
expiate  their  arrogance,  not  in  our  country,  but  on  their  own 
territory — that  territory  which  should  rightfully  be  subject  to 
the  French,  who  have  so  often  conquered  it.” 

At  the  sight  of  such  an  army,  which  seemed  to  have  sprung 
out  of  the  earth,  the  German  Emperor  stopped  in  his  march, 
overcome  ;  then  turned  on  his  heel  with  all  his  men.  “  At 
the  news  of  his  retreat,”  adds  Suger,  “  it  took  nothing  less 
than  the  prayers  of  the  archbishops,  the  bishops,  and  men 
acceptable  for  their  piety,  to  prevent  the  French  going  to 
devastate  the  States  of  this  prince.” 

And  the  great  minister  rightly  adds  that  this  pacific  victory 

135 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


was  more  important  still  than  if  they  had  triumphed  on  the 
field  of  battle.  Especially  as,  at  this  same  moment,  Amauri 
de  Montfort,  at  the  head  of  the  contingents  of  the  Vexin,  was 
repulsing  the  English  on  the  Norman  frontier.  These  events 
of  the  year  1124  have  made  less  impression  in  our  history  than 
the  victory  gained  ninety  days  later  by  Philip  Augustus  at 
Bouvines  ;  they  are  not  less  glorious. 

Suger  ends  in  a  fine  patriotic  passage  : 

44  Neither  in  modern  nor  in  ancient  times  has  France  done 
anything  more  brilliant,  or  shown  more  gloriously  to  what  a 
point  the  brilliance  of  her  power  can  reach  when  her  forces  are 
assembled,  than  in  this  moment  when  she  triumphed  simul¬ 
taneously  over  the  German  Emperor  and  the  King  of  England.” 

Two  years  later,  Louis  VI  was  bringing  to  an  end  the  war  in 
Auvergne.  It  had  begun  in  1122.  William  VI,  the  Count  of 
Auvergne,  was  persecuting  Aimeri,  the  Bishop  of  Clermont, 
and  his  people.  A  first  campaign  had  been  marked  with 
brilliant  success.  Louis  VI  collected  in  1126  more  numerous 
troops. 

44  The  King  had  already  become  very  fat,”  says  Suger. 
44  He  had  difficulty  in  carrying  the  thick  mass  of  his  body. 
Any  one  else,  however  poor  they  might  be,  would  not  have 
been  willing  or  able,  with  such  a  physical  drawback,  to  expose 
himself  to  the  danger  of  mounting  on  horseback  ;  but  he, 
against  the  advice  of  his  friends,  gave  ear  only  to  his  admirable 
courage,  and  braved  the  overwhelming  heats  of  June  and 
August,  which  the  youngest  knights  could  hardly  bear  :  he  made 
fun  of  those  who  could  not  accommodate  themselves  to  the 
heat,  though  he  was  often  forced,  among  the  narrow  ways  of 
the  marshes,  to  get  his  men  to  support  him.” 

Louis  laid  siege  to  Montferrand,  where  the  men  of  the  Count 
of  Auvergne  had  taken  refuge.  He  conducted  the  siege  vigor¬ 
ously.  He  had  a  hand  cut  off  such  of  the  partisans  of  the  Count 
of  Auvergne  as  he  managed  to  capture,  and  had  them  led  under 
the  walls  of  the  fortress, 44  so  that  they  could  show  their  comrades 
their  severed  hand  reposing  in  that  which  was  left.”  Then 
there  appeared  on  the  heights  William,  Duke  of  Aquitaine, 
at  the  head  of  numerous  troops.  He  came  to  bring  help  to 
his  vassal,  the  Count  of  Auvergne.  But,  like  the  German 
136 


A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ARMOUR 


Emperor,  he  came  to  a  standstill  impressed  by  the  imposing 
aspect  afforded  by  the  royal  army.  And  he  sent  a  message  to 
the  King,  the  text  of  which  has  been  preserved. 

“  May  the  grandeur  of  the  royal  Majesty  not  disdain  to 
accept  the  homage  and  service  of  the  Duke  of  Aquitaine  or 
to  preserve  to  him  his  rights.  Justice  demands  that  he  should 
do  you  service,  but  he  would  also  that  you  should  be  to  him 
a  just  suzerain.  The  Count  of  Auvergne  holds  Auvergne  from 
me  as  I  hold  it  from  you.”  Consequently  the  Duke  of  Aqui¬ 
taine  proposed  to  submit  the  difference  between  the  Count  of 
Auvergne  and  the  Bishop  of  Clermont  to  the  judgment  of  the 
royal  Court.  As  a  guarantee  of  good  faith  he  offered  hostages. 
These  propositions  were  accepted  by  Louis  after  deliberation 
with  his  faithful  advisers. 

We  have  spoken  in  some  detail  of  several  of  the  points  on 
which  Louis  le  Gros  brought  his  great  energy  to  bear. 

These  deeds  are  repeated  from  north  to  south  and  from 
east  to  west.  It  was  with  lance  in  hand,  on  his  strong  war-horse, 
in  his  incessant  progresses,  that  the  great  prince  earned  the 
nickname,  recalled  by  the  Minstrel  of  Reims  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  of  “  Louis  the  Justiciary,”  vigilant  in  defending  the 
people  whom  the  “  hobereaux  ”  destroyed,  protecting  the 
merchants  who  traversed  the  country,  the  religious  troubled 
in  their  useful  works. 

However,  the  war  against  the  King  of  England  had  just 
broken  out  for  the  third  time.  There  were  mingled  with  it 
complications  in  the  provinces  of  the  north.  The  County  of 
Flanders  depended  on  the  French  Crown.  On  the  2nd  March 
1127,  the  Count  of  Flanders,  Charles  of  Denmark,  called  Charles 
the  Good,  had  been  assassinated  by  some  knights  of  that 
country,  inspired  by  William  of  Ypres.  Behold  King  Louis 
at  once  on  horseback,  helmet  on  head,  impatient  to  punish 
the  murderers.  And  first  of  all,  at  Arras,  he  has  the  election 
of  a  new  count  made  by  the  chief  men  of  the  country.  There 
were  many  claimants.  Among  them  were  Thierry  d’Alsace, 
William  of  Ypres,  and  Baldwin  IV,  Count  of  Hainault.  Under 
the  influence  of  Louis  le  Gros  they  elected  William  Clito,  the 
son  of  the  Duke  of  Normandy,  Robert  Short  Hose,  whom  Henry 
Beauclerc  had  deprived  of  his  Duchy.  Clito  was  devoted  to 

137 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


the  King,  whose  sister-in-law,  Jeanne  de  Montf errât,  he  had 
married.  Then  the  King  enters  Flanders,  where  he  seals 
charters  and  acts  as  sovereign.  The  murderers  of  Charles  the 
Good  are  besieged  in  the  tower  of  the  church  of  Bruges,  whence, 
threatened  by  the  flames,  they  throw  themselves  to  the  ground. 
The  most  guilty,  Bouchard  and  Bertold,  suffered  frightful 
punishments.  Bouchard  was  bound  to  a  wheel  and  the  crows 
devoured  him  ;  Bertold  was  eaten  alive  by  a  dog,  together 
with  which  they  had  tied  him  to  the  top  of  a  pole.  Louis 
returned  to  France.  But  Clito  was  not  the  statesman  required 
by  the  circumstances. 

The  Flemish  towns  had  already  become  strong  and  power¬ 
ful.  The  new  Count  of  Flanders  did  not  recognize  their  interests 
and  despised  their  “ ‘  liberties  ”  (  franchises ).  Thierry  d’Alsace 
was  called  in  by  the  disaffected.  The  action  of  Louis  le  Gros 
was  hampered  by  his  struggle  with  the  King  of  England.  He 
ordered  the  burgesses  of  Flanders  to  send  to  him  eight  repre¬ 
sentatives,  to  come  to  an  agreement  with  him  over  the  quarrel 
with  William  Clito.  The  answer  of  the  burgesses  was  insolent  : 
“  Let  the  King  of  France  mind  his  own  business.”  Louis  VI 
got  the  Bishop  of  Tournai  to  lay  an  interdict  on  the  churches 
of  Flanders,  and  had  Thierry  d’Alsace  excommunicated  by  the 
Archbishop  of  Reims.  He  himself  advanced  at  the  head  of 
an  army  as  far  as  Lille,  in  which  Thierry  was  shut  up,  and 
laid  siege  to  it.  But  William  Clito,  wounded  at  the  siege  of 
Alost,  gave  up  the  struggle  and  became  a  monk.  Thierry 
had  no  longer  a  rival. 

This  is  but  a  sketch  of  which  the  details  will  be  defined 
under  Philip  the  Fair. 

The  King  of  England,  Henry  I,  Beauclerc,  was  at  the  same 
time  a  soldier  and  a  proved  statesman  :  a  prince  of  great  wisdom, 
says  Suger,  whose  strength  of  mind  and  body  were  equally 
worthy  of  admiration. 

We  do  not  know  if  Suger  admired  likewise  his  cunning, 
his  cruelty,  and  his  avarice.  He  was  the  youngest  of  the  sons 
of  William  the  Conqueror.  We  will  not  stop  to  give  the  details 
of  the  struggle  which  he  carried  on  against  Louis  le  Gros 
almost  without  interruption  for  twenty-five  years. 

A  thing  which  is  characteristic  of  the  fights  at  an  epoch 

138 


A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ARMOUR 


when  chivalry  reached  its  climax,  is  the  small  number  of 
deaths  which  they  caused.  For  example,  at  the  battle  of 
Andelys  (20th  August  1119),  which  was  very  fierce,  out  of  900 
knights  who  took  part,  only  three  were  killed.  44  They  were 
clad  in  armour.  Through  the  fear  of  God,  or  from  chivalry, 
the  aim  was  to  take  prisoners  rather  than  to  slay.  Christian 
soldiers  do  not  thirst  to  spill  blood  ”  (Ordericus  Vitalis). 

The  war  arose  from  a  fight  for  the  possession  of  the  castle 
of  Gisors,  the  strategic  importance  of  which  was  considerable. 
Henry  Beauclerc  added  to  the  immense  resources  at  his  dis¬ 
posal  the  active  co-operation  of  his  nephew,  Thibaud  IV  of 
Blois.  On  his  side  Louis  le  Gros  tried  to  stir  up  the  feudal 
forces  of  Normandy  against  the  English  prince.  When,  on 
the  25th  November  1120,  the  son  of  the  English  King  had 
perished  in  the  wreck  of  the  White  Ship — a  pleasure  party 
entrusted  to  a  drunken  crew — Louis  le  Gros  took  up  vigorously 
again  the  claims  of  William  Clito,  the  son  of  Robert  Short 
Hose,  to  the  Duchy  of  Normandy.  The  King  of  England 
married  at  this  moment  the  only  child  remaining  to  him, 
his  daughter  Matilda,  to  Geoffrey  le  Bel  (the  Fair),  heir  of  the 
Count  of  Anjou  (1127).  The  foundation  was  laid  on  which 
the  threatening  empire  of  the  Plantagenets  was  soon  to  be 
erected.  The  struggle,  broken  by  short  truces,  was  to  end 
only  in  1135  with  the  death  of  the  English  King.  As  he  left 
no  son,  there  were  violent  struggles  over  the  succession,  and 
the  armed  combats  which  these  caused  in  the  heart  of  the 
Anglo-Norman  realm  gave  a  momentary  respite  to  the  Capetian 
monarchy. 

It  will  cause  surprise  to  read  that  a  prince  endowed  as 
was  Louis  le  Gros  with  all  the  qualities  which  make  a  great 
King — energy,  activity,  strength  of  character,  devotion  to  his 
people,  a  clear  intelligence  of  its  needs,  and  who,  in  the  accom¬ 
plishment  of  his  task  had  not  wavered  for  an  instant — should 
have  thought  of  abdicating  to  become  a  monk  in  the  Abbey 
of  St.  Denis.  The  sense  of  the  duties  which  he  had  still  to 
perform  on  the  throne  prevented  him. 

In  the  last  years  of  his  life  he  suffered  greatly  from  his 
extreme  corpulence,  which  not  only  embarrassed  his  movements, 
but  inflicted  gout  and  other  complaints  on  him.  He  had 

189 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


gained  experience  and  felt  himself  at  the  height  of  his  pro¬ 
fession  as  King.  Ah  !  if  only  with  the  knowledge  he  had  won 
he  could  have  regained  the  agility  and  vigour  of  youth  ! 
44  Alas  !”  he  said,  44  how  frail  and  pitiful  is  our  nature,  which 
cannot  know  and  act  at  the  same  time  !  ” 

44  Already  for  some  time,”  writes  Suger,  44  the  lord  Louis, 
enfeebled  by  his  corpulence  and  the  continual  fatigues  of  war, 
was  losing  his  bodily  strength  while  maintaining  his  mental 
power.  Although  he  was  sixty  years  of  age  he  had  such  know¬ 
ledge  and  ability  that  if  the  continual  inconvenience  of  the 
fat  which  overweighted  his  body  had  not  prevented  it,  he 
would  by  his  superiority  have  crushed  his  enemies  everywhere. 
Though  overwhelmed  by  his  heavy  corpulence  he  resisted  so 
firmly  the  King  of  England,  Count  Thibaud,  and  all  his  enemies, 
that  those  who  were  witnesses  of  his  splendid  actions,  or  heard 
them  recounted,  praised  loudly  his  nobility  of  soul  while  de¬ 
ploring  the  weakness  of  his  body.  Exhausted  by  sickness, 
and  hardly  able  to  support  himself  through  a  wound  in  the 
leg,  he  marched  against  Count  Thibaud,  and  burned  Bonneval, 
with  the  exception  of  a  convent  of  monks  which  he  spared.  ...” 

His  last  expedition  in  1137  was  directed  against  the  castle 
of  St.  Brisson-sur-Loire,  near  Gien.  The  lord  of  the  place 
was  robbing  merchants.  Louis  forced  him  to  capitulate,  and 
set  fire  to  his  castle.  He  was  returning  from  the  accomplish¬ 
ment  of  this  act  of  justice  when  at  Châteauneuf-sur-Loire  he 
was  taken  with  a  violent  dysentery.  He  accepted  but  im¬ 
patiently  the  doctor’s  remedies.  Every  one  was  allowed 
to  come  freely  to  his  bedside  ;  whoever  wished  could  enter 
his  room  ;  to  all  he  turned  a  cheerful  countenance.  He  took 
advantage  of  a  momentary  improvement  to  have  himself 
moved  as  far  as  Melun.  The  news  of  his  illness  spread,  and 
from  all  parts  there  was  an  immense  concourse  of  people  of 
every  class.  44  The  devoted  people  whom  he  had  maintained 
in  peace,”  says  Suger,  44  left  castle  and  town,  and  abandoned 
the  plough  to  hasten  to  meet  him  on  the  roads.  They  prayed 
to  God  for  his  safety.” 

Louis  VI  knew  that  his  last  hour  had  come.  He  ordered 
that  a  carpet  should  be  spread  on  the  floor  of  the  room  in  which 
he  lay,  and  that  ashes  should  be  sprinkled  on  it  in  the  form 
140 


A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ARMOUR 


of  a  cross.  He  had  himself  laid  upon  it  with  his  arms  out¬ 
stretched,  lying  in  the  grey  dust  with  his  face  turned  to  heaven. 
Louis  the  Justiciary  gave  up  his  noble  soul  to  God,  on  the 
1st  August  1137,  at  the  age  of  fifty-six  years. 

Sources. — Suger,  Vie  de  Louis  le  Gros,  ed.  Molinier,  1887  ;  Le  Moine 
Guillaume,  “Vie  de  Suger,”  Hist,  de  la  France  (D.  Bouquet),  xii.  102-15  ; 
Ordericus  Vitalis,  Historiée  ecclesiasticœ,  libri  XII,  ed.  Le  Prévost,  1838-55, 
5  vols.  ;  Galbert  de  Bruges,  Vie  et  meurtre  de  Charles  le  Bon  (1127-28), 
ed.  Perenne,  1891. 

Historical  Works. — Ach.  Luchaire,  Louis  VI  le  Gros,  Annales  de  sa 
vie  et  son  règne,  1890  ;  Thompson,  The  Development  of  the  French  Monarchy 
under  Louis  VI  le  Gros,  1895  ;  Cartéllieri,  Abt  Suger  von  Saint-Denis, 
1898  ;  Ach.  Luchaire,  “  Les  Premiers  Capétiens,”  in  the  Histoire  de 
France ,  edited  by  Lavisse,  ii.  1901  ;  L.  Halphen,  Le  Comté  d'Anjou  au 
XIe  Siècle,  1906. 


141 


CHAPTER  VII 


THE  COMMUNES 

The  urban  aristocracy.  The  communal  revolution  was  directed 
in  the  towns  by  the  patricians,  who  claimed  full  seigniorial  rights. 

The  troubles  of  Le  Mans  in  1069.  The  commune  of  Le  Mans  ; 
assassination  of  Bishop  Gaudry  (1111-14).  The  communal 
charters  ;  they  make  a  feudal  personality  of  the  community. 
After  the  proclamation  of  the  communes,  the  patrician  families 
are  masters  of  the  towns.  Their  rivalries.  The  rural  communes. 

The  commune  of  Lorris. 

LOUIS  LE  GROS  has  been  called  “  the  Father  of  the 
Communes,”  no  doubt  because  of  what  Ordericus 
Vitalis  wrote  of  him  :  “  Louis,  in  order  to  repress  the 
tyranny  and  the  brigandage  of  the  rebellious  1  hobereaux,’ 
asked  for  the  help  of  the  bishops  throughout  France  :  then 
was  established  the  commune  of  the  people  in  order  that,  led 
by  its  priests,  it  should  bring  its  banners  to  the  help  of  the 
King  in  sieges  and  fights.” 

The  following  passage  of  the  Abbot  Suger  indicates  the  rôle 
of  Louis  le  Gros  in  the  communal  revolution,  the  character  of 
which  it  shows  : 

“  Louis  returned  towards  Amiens  (1115)  and  laid  siege  to  this 
town,  which  was  occupied  by  a  certain  Adam,  a  cruel  tyrant 
who  desolated  the  neighbourhood  with  his  depredations.” 

It  was  a  question  of  a  famous  tower  which  dominated 
Amiens  and  was  called  the  Châtillon.  Adam  lived  there  as 
the  representative  of  Enguerran  de  Boves,  lord  of  Coucy  and 
Count  of  Amiens. 

“  Llaving  kept  this  tower  closely  besieged  for  nearly  two 
years  (1116-17),  the  lord  Louis  at  last  forced  the  defenders  to 
surrender  at  discretion  ;  after  taking  possession  of  it  he  de¬ 
stroyed  it  from  top  to  bottom  and  so  re-established  a  welcome 
peace  in  the  country  ;  finally,  he  deprived  the  said  tyrant 
and  his  people  of  all  power  over  Amiens.” 

142 


THE  COMMUNES 


Let  us  look  in  another  direction,  at  the  town  of  Beauvais. 
A  lord,  Lancelin  II  de  Bulles,  Count  of  Dammartin,  had 
managed  to  usurp  certain  dues  which  Suger  calls  44  Conductus 
Belvacensis,”  market  dues,  otherwise  known  as  44  guidage  ”  or 
44  péage.”  These  dues,  moreover,  were  not  in  any  way  justified. 
Louis  VI  forced  Lancelin  to  give  them  up. 

These  facts  reveal  the  causes  of  the  communal  movement, 
which  begins  to  show  itself  about  the  end  of  the  eleventh 
century  and  develops  in  the  following  century.  We  have  seen 
how  the  feudal  lords  had  presided  over  the  formation  of  the 
towns.  In  the  beginning  they  had  rendered  such  services 
that  without  them  the  towns  could  not  have  come  into  exist¬ 
ence.  In  arms  from  morning  to  night,  they  ensured  the  tran¬ 
quillity  of  urban  labour,  and  safety  of  transit  over  the  land 
within  their  suzerainty.  In  return,  they  legitimately  collected 
market  dues,  tolls,  dues  on  wine  or  commodities  sold  in  the 
towns  ;  they  established  there  manorial  ovens  and  mills  to 
which  the  inhabitants  were  bound  to  come  with  open  purse  to 
grind  their  corn  and  bake  their  loaves  ;  they  exercised  there 
the  right  of  44  banvin  ”  which  gave  them  the  privilege,  when 
the  grape  harvest  was  over,  of  putting  on  sale  before  all  others 
the  produce  of  their  harvest  ;  they  and  their  people  enjoyed 
the  right  of  lodging  (gîté)  in  the  town.  One  knows  the  infinite 
variety  and  the  multiplicity  of  feudal  dues. 

In  their  origin,  then,  these  rights  had  their  justification. 
Towns  of  little  importance,  agricultural  groups  surrounded  by 
a  wall  or  a  palisade,  stood  in  need  of  the  protection  of  a  lord  ; 
besides,  in  the  beginning,  these  dues,  in  view  of  the  unimportant 
character  of  the  district,  represented  but  a  small  payment.  But 
what  happens  ?  In  virtue  of  the  very  progress  achieved, 
largely  thanks  to  the  lord,  his  protection  becomes  useless  :  it 
became  useless  by  reason  of  the  peace  and  order  which  were 
being  established  throughout  the  realm,  and  because  of  the 
importance  and  therefore  of  the  power  which  the  town  had 
acquired.  In  the  second  place,  these  contributions,  moderate 
in  the  beginning,  when  they  were  collected  in  a  modest  little 
district,  became  enormous  and  excessive  when  they  were  paid 
out  progressively  by  a  rich  and  populous  city. 

For  example  :  the  Count  of  Blois  takes  under  his  protection 

143 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


the  inhabitants  of  Seris  on  consideration  of  a  yearly  rent  of 
two  measures  ( setiers )  of  wheat  per  house.  This  is  all  very 
well  while  Seris  is  still  a  little  nursling  and  cannot  do  without 
the  powerful  support  of  the  Count  of  Blois  ;  but  suppose  the 
town,  as  happens  with  many  others,  is  transformed  into  a  rich 
locality,  populous  and  powerful,  and  the  protection  of  the  noble 
count  loses  all  raison  (Têtre  :  the  tax  levied  on  each  house  will 
seem  an  intolerable  abuse. 

The  dues  collected  on  wine  entering  the  gates  of  a  little 
town  of  seven  or  eight  hundred  souls  are  a  small  thing  ;  but 
what  revenues  they  represent  if  it  is  a  question  of  a  town  of 
70,000  or  80,000  inhabitants. 

Moreover,  in  proportion  as  trade  had  developed,  these 
taxes  on  transport,  market  dues,  and  tolls  had  become  more 
and  more  vexatious.  The  owner  of  a  sack  of  wool — and  we 
quote  this  as  an  actual  example — after  having  paid  a  tax  of 
exit  on  leaving  England  and  a  tax  for  the  right  of  entry  on 
landing  at  Dammes,  in  Flanders,  had  still,  in  order  to  cross  the 
Scheldt  and  the  Scarpe  from  Rupelmonde  to  Douai,  to  pay 
seventeen  tolls.  As  has  been  said,  these  dues  were  legitimately 
collected  by  the  feudal  lords  in  the  days  when  they  ensured 
safe  transit  within  the  limits  of  their  jurisdiction  (  justices )  ;  in 
the  time  when  the  baron,  on  whose  lands  a  merchant  had 
been  robbed,  was  bound  to  indemnify  him  for  his  loss,  his 
vigilance  having  been  in  default  ;  in  the  days,  finally,  when  it 
was  the  duty  of  the  lord  to  see  to  the  upkeep  of  the  roads  and 
bridges  ;  but  one  can  imagine  the  irritation  of  the  burgesses  at 
a  time  when,  on  the  one  hand,  these  services  had  become  useless 
or  were  no  longer  performed,  and,  on  the  other,  the  dues  re¬ 
presented  altogether  a  sum  which  as  a  result  of  the  development 
of  trade  has  been  multiplied  more  than  tenfold.  Add  to  this 
that  the  suzerain  lords  of  the  towns  continued  to  exercise  in 
them  their  judicial  powers  ;  and  justice  was,  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  government.  In  the  preceding  century,  the  lords  were 
alone  capable  of  acting  as  justiciaries  ;  but  now  in  the  rich 
and  prosperous  towns,  where  the  highest  class  is  educated,  the 
aristocracy  claim  this  right  of  justice  for  themselves  ;  and  with 
the  more  insistence,  as  it  would  form  the  natural  complement 
of  the  authority  which  these  patricians  exert  over  their  clients. 
144 


THE  COMMUNES 


But  the  lords,  in  possession  of  their  privileges,  intend  to  pre¬ 
serve  them.  The  burgesses,  for  whom  these  privileges  have 
become  onerous  and  vexatious,  and  who  regard  them  as  no 
longer  justified,  desire  either  to  free  themselves  from  them  or 
to  appropriate  them.  Such  is  the  origin  of  the  communal 
movement. 

The  communal  revolution  which  is  seen  breaking  out  in 
France  towards  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century,  was  the 
struggle  in  the  towns  of  the  patricians  supported  by  their 
clients,  against  the  feudal  suzerains  supported  by  their  vassals. 

At  this  time  the  patricians  are  at  the  same  time  merchants 
and  soldiers  ;  as  the  feudal  barons,  their  contemporaries,  are 
soldiers  and  farmers.  The  patricians  are  constantly  at  war 
not  only  against  their  own  lords  but  against  the  “  hobereaux  ” 
of  the  neighbourhood.  The  Counts  of  Ponthieu  give  charters 
of  freedom  to  the  inhabitants  of  Abbeville  and  Doullens,  “  to 
remove  them  from  the  losses  and  vexations  which  they  con¬ 
stantly  suffer  at  the  hands  of  the  lords  of  the  district.” 

We  must  not  see  in  this  a  democratic  movement.  An 
aristocracy  has  been  formed  in  the  towns  ;  it  has  been  formed 
feudally,  by  the  power  of  patronage,  and  in  the  same  fashion 
as  rural  feudalism.  But  in  consequence  of  the  development 
of  industry,  the  clients  are  artisans  instead  of  labourers  ;  and 
yet  in  some  towns,  which  have  kept  their  agricultural  character, 
the  clients  of  the  patricians  are  still  to  a  great  extent  labourers 
who  live  by  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  and  especially  kitchen¬ 
gardening  and  the  breeding  of  cattle.  In  reading  the  history 
of  the  communal  revolution  at  Laon  one  meets  the  good  country 
folk  who  come  on  Saturdays  to  buy  their  vegetables  in  the 
town. 

The  communal  revolution  was,  then,  the  work  of  the 
patricians.  They  are  for  that  matter,  as  we  have  just  said, 
very  like  the  feudal  lords.  Their  children  are  united  by 
marriage.  The  families  of  both  are  called  “  lignages  ”  (lineages)  ; 
the  patricians  also  have  seals,  armouries,  a  standard,  a  banner  ; 
they  live  in  fortified  dwellings  dominated  by  a  battlemented 
tower  ;  they  are  of  a  warlike  temper.  The  patricians  go  into 
battle  surrounded  by  their  clients,  as  the  barons  escorted  by 
their  vassals.  It  is  true  that  most  of  them  are  engaged  in 

K  145 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


trade  ;  some  are  44  navigators,”  others  drapers,  and  some 
bankers  ;  but  living  on  the  work  of  their  commissioners  or 
workmen,  they  do  not  consider  themselves  less  highly  placed 
in  the  social  scale  than  their  neighbour  who  lives  on  the  labour 
of  the  peasants.  In  all  the  towns  it  is  the  richest  burgesses 
who  are  to  direct  the  communal  revolution,  and  historians 
have  remarked  that  it  was  the  towns  in  which  the  aristocracy 
had  most  prevailed  which  secured  the  greatest  degree  of  in¬ 
dependence. 

The  representatives  of  these  patrician  families  were  grouped 
in  hanses,  guilds,  brotherhoods,  for  the  needs  of  their  industry 
or  trade.  Everywhere  where  the  communal  movement  is  to 
triumph  these  hanses  or  guilds  not  only  take  possession  of  the 
government  of  the  commune,  but  form  the  commune  itself. 
From  this  point  of  view  the  communal  charter  granted  in  1127 
by  the  Count  of  Flanders  to  the  town  of  St.  Omer  is  character¬ 
istic.  Hardly  anything  but  commercial  privileges  are  found 
in  it  ;  it  is  a  constitution  designed  for  merchants  and  in  which 
it  is  stated  that  the  franchises  are  granted  exclusively  to  those 
who  are  members  of  the  guild.  It  is  the  same  with  the  Charity 
of  Arras,  and  that  of  Valenciennes,  and  for  the  44  Amity  ”  of 
Lille.  These  are  the  names  by  which  the  communal  charter 
was  designated  in  these  localities. 

Not  less  significant  are  the  expressions  used  in  1213  by 
the  ecclesiastical  Synod  of  Paris,  when  it  denounces  those 
44  synagogues  ”  which  44  usurers  ”  and  44  extortioners  ” — the 
wealthy  leaders  of  the  merchant  bourgeoisie — have  erected  in 
France  under  the  name  of  44  communes.” 

The  places  in  which  the  first  aldermen  or  communal  magis¬ 
trates  meet  are  the  merchants’  market-places,  i.e.  the  places 
where  the  merchants  discuss  their  affairs — what  we  should  call 
the  Exchanges  ;  or  again  it  is  the  cloth  market  in  the  towns 
where  the  hanse  is  formed  of  the  drapers.  The  majority  of 
the  big  cities  had  there  their  first  town  hall,  notably  Beau¬ 
vais,  Ypres,  Arras,  and  Paris. 

The  French  towns  in  which  the  patricians  succeeded  the 
soonest  in  freeing  themselves  from  the  seigniorial  domination 
by  forming  themselves  into  44  communes  ”  were  Cambrai 
(then  in  the  territory  of  the  Empire),  Le  Mans,  St.  Quentin 
1:6 


THE  COMMUNES 


(before  1077),  Beauvaisj|(before  1099),  then  Arras,  Noyon 
(towards  1108),  Mantes  in  1110,  Valenciennes  in  1114,  Amiens 
in  1116-17,  Corbie  towards  1120  ;  Soissons  in  1126,  Bruges, 
Lille,  St.  Omer  towards  1127,  and  Ghent  shortly  afterwards. 
In  the  towns  of  the  South  the  movement  began  later — at  Mont¬ 
pelier  in  1142,  at  Béziers  in  1167,  at  Toulouse  in  1188,  at 
Nîmes  only  in  1207. 

The  disturbances  of  Le  Mans  seemed  like  a  prologue.  The 
lord  of  the  town,  William  the  Conqueror,  was  detained  in 
England — a  favourable  circumstance.  And  to  free  themselves 
from  his  authority  there  was  formed  an  association  joined 
by  everybody,  the  patricians  and  their  clients,  the  bishop 
and  his  clergy,  and  even  the  knights  who  had  taken  up  their 
abode  in  the  town.  And  immediately  the  spirit  of  the  urban 
association  showed  itself.  They  set  out,  banner,  bishop,  and 
clergy  at  their  head,  to  make  war  on  the  feudal  barons  of  the 
district.  The  burgesses  set  fire  to  several  of  their  strongholds, 
then  they  hastened  “  with  furious  ardour  ”  to  lay  siege  to  the 
castle  of  Hugh  de  Sillé,  one  of  the  principal  lords  of  the  neigh¬ 
bourhood  ;  but  the  keep  held,  and  the  men  of  Le  Mans  turned 
against  the  castle  of  Geoffrey  du  Maine,  which  they  took  and 
destroyed  from  top  to  bottom.  To  confess  the  truth,  this  fine 
courage  died  down  on  the  return  of  the  Conqueror,  and  the 
men  of  Le  Mans  went  humbly  in  procession  to  meet  him  for 
the  purpose  of  handing  to  him  the  keys  of  their  city. 

The  establishment  of  the  commune  of  Laon  took  a  particu¬ 
larly  dramatic  character. 

The  town  had  been  the  capital  of  the  Carolingians,  who 
lived  there  with  a  part  of  their  nobility,  a  city  built  on  a  hill, 
the  Mont  Loon  of  the  chansons  de  geste ,  rendered  inaccessible 
by  defensive  works,  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  vines  and  quickset 
hedges.  Following  the  long  sojourn  which  the  Carolingians 
had  made  there,  the  feudal  nobility  were  still,  towards  the  end 
of  the  eleventh  century,  proportionately  more  numerous  at 
Laon  than  in  other  towns.  Relations  were  frequent  between 
the  knights  and  the  peasants,  their  vassals.  The  town  was 
under  the  suzerainty  of  the  bishop,  who  held  at  Laon  a  court 
of  justice,  and  collected  there  feudal  dues.  There  were  found 
then  at  Laon,  at  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century,  three 

147 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


classes  of  people  :  first,  the  bishop,  an  ecclesiastical  and  feudal 
lord,  with  his  clerks  and  his  household,  his  servants  and  his 
soldiers  ;  secondly,  the  feudal  lords,  i.e.  the  knights  living 
there,  with  some  of  their  vassals  and  their  squires  ;  thirdly, 
the  burgesses  and  their  households.  Industry  was  not  much 
developed,  and  these  citizens  were  for  the  most  part  market 
gardeners. 

At  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century  the  Bishop  of  Laon, 
a  certain  Gaudry,  was  a  singular  character.  He  was  not  a 
priest,  but  a  simple  subdeacon,  grossly  ignorant  except  in 
matters  of  war  and  the  chase.  He  had  won  the  favour  of 
Henry  I,  King  of  England,  at  the  battle  of  Tenchebrai  (28th 
Sept.  1106),  where  he  had  taken  prisoner  Robert  Short  Hose, 
the  brother  of  Henry  I,  and  had  delivered  him  into  the  hands 
of  the  King.  After  this,  Henry  made  him  his  revising  officer, 
then  Bishop  of  Laon.  He  was  seen  clothed  in  cope  and  mitre  ; 
but  more  often  with  helmet  and  hauberk.  He  had  to  attend 
him  a  negro  who  acted  as  his  executioner.  He  had  had  the 
castellan,  Gerard  de  Querzy,  killed  in  church.  Guibert  de 
Nogent  and  Ordericus  Vitalis  have  drawn  the  same  picture  of 
Bishop  Gaudry. 

In  the  episcopal  palace  were  ranged  vases  full  of  gold 
which  he  had  extracted  from  the  English  King,  and  in  larger 
quantities  from  his  subjects  of  Laon. 

For  the  rest,  these  subjects  themselves  were  not  of  a  very 
peaceable  temperament.  We  have  seen  how,  when  its  work 
of  organization  was  finished,  a  part  of  the  feudal  nobility  had 
become  mere  brigands.  These  habits  were  found  again  among 
the  knights  living  in  Laon,  and  were  communicated  to  their 
fellow-citizens,  the  burgesses.  Thus  the  town  was  changed 
into  a  sort  of  cut-throat  place.  The  nobles  pounced  at  night 
on  the  burgesses,  threatening  them  with  death,  and  held  them 
to  ransom.  On  the  other  hand,  the  burgesses  seized  the 
peasants  of  whom  the  nobles  were  the  suzerains,  and  despoiled 
them  with  an.  equal  brutality. 

The  King  himself  was  not  safe  from  the  enterprises  of  our 
citizens.  He  happened  to  be  staying  at  Laon  with  his  house¬ 
hold.  His  horses  could  be  seen  being  led  to  drink,  through 
the  streets  of  the  town,  in  the  full  daylight  or  in  the  dusk  of 

148 


THE  COMMUNES 


the  evening  ;  and  our  burgesses  watching  them  on  the  way 
and  capturing  them,  after  having  thrashed  their  drivers. 

One  can  imagine  the  excitement  produced  in  such  a  place 
by  the  announcement  of  the  communal  charters  which  had 
been  obtained  by  the  inhabitants  of  St.  Quentin  and  Noyon. 
Bishop  Gaudry  having  gone  to  England,  the  burgesses  of  Laon 
obtained  from  the  clergy  and  nobles  of  the  town  authority  to 
form  themselves  into  a  commune  in  their  turn. 

We  must  reprint  here  once  again  the  celebrated  passage 
from  Guibert  de  Nogent  :  “  The  clergy,  the  archdeacon,  and 
the  knights,  seeing  how  things  were  going,  and  for  the  sake  of 
gaining  money,  made  an  offer  to  the  people  to  give  them  for  a 
financial  consideration  the  power  to  form  a  commune.  Now 
let  us  see  what  was  meant  by  this  execrable  and  new  name.  4  All 
the  inhabitants  who  were  due  to  pay  a  certain  tax  were  to  pay 
at  one  single  time  in  the  year  the  ordinary  obligations  of  serfdom, 
and  to  make  amends  by  a  fine  fixed  legally  if  they  committed 
any  offence  contrary  to  the  laws.’  On  these  conditions  they 
were  entirely  freed  from  all  the  other  payments  and  dues  which 
it  was  customary  to  impose  on  the  serfs.  The  men  of  the  people, 
seizing  this  opportunity  to  free  themselves  from  a  host  of 
vexations,  gave  large  sums  of  money  to  these  misers,  whose 
hands  seemed  like  gulfs  which  must  be  filled.  The  latter, 
rendered  more  tractable  by  this  shower  of  gold,  promised  the 
people,  under  oath,  to  keep  to  the  letter  the  agreements  made 
with  them.” 

One  asks  oneself  if  the  word  “  execrable,”  which  is  found  at 
the  head  of  this  famous  page,  is  not  an  interpolation  ;  for  its 
sense  is  contrary  to  the  context,  opposed  above  all  to  the  spirit 
which  inspires  the  work  of  Guibert  de  Nogent. 

But  here  is  Gaudry  returning  from  England.  One  can 
imagine  his  fury.  He  breaks  out  angrily,  then  calms  down 
when  the  burgesses  have  paid  out  money  to  him  also.  And 
Louis  VI  equally,  for  a  financial  consideration,  recognizes  the 
new  commune  (1111)  ;  but  in  the  following  year,  under  the 
pressure  exerted  by  the  bishop,  the  King  revokes  his  decision, 
and  the  commune  of  Laon  is  suppressed  (1112).  This  was  the 
beginning  of  the  revolution.  The  streets  of  Laon  rang  with 
the  cry  :  “  Commune  !  Commune  !  ”  And  when  Guibert  de 

149 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Nogent  warns  Gaudry  of  the  danger  he  is  running  in  resisting 
the  burgesses  any  longer  : 

44  Good,”  says  the  bishop,  44  what  can  they  do  ?  If  John, 
my  negro,  were  to  pull  the  nose  of  the  most  redoubtable  among 
them,  would  he  dare  so  much  as  to  utter  a  groan  ?  ” 

44  The  violation  of  the  treaties  by  which  the  commune  of 
Laon  had  been  formed,”  writes  Guibert  de  Nogent,  44  filled  the 
hearts  of  the  burgesses  with  rage  and  stupefaction.  They 
ceased  to  do  any  work.  The  butchers  and  the  shoemakers 
closed  their  shops  ;  the  innkeepers  and  the  wine  merchants 
displayed  no  merchandise.”  A  general  strike  ! 

Far  from  allowing  themselves  to  be  intimidated,  the  bishop 
and  the  knights  demanded  from  the  inhabitants  a  new  con¬ 
tribution,  destined  to  destroy  the  commune,  and  which  equalled 
the  sum  they  had  paid  to  establish  it. 

On  Good  Friday,  companies  armed  with  swords  and  spears, 
with  axes  and  hatchets,  with  bows  and  iron  weapons,  run 
through  the  streets  converging  on  the  episcopal  palace,  and 
slay  its  defenders.  At  the  noise,  Bishop  Gaudry  runs  to  take 
refuge  in  the  cellar,  where  he  hides  at  the  bottom  of  a  barrel. 
He  is  pulled  out  by  the  hair.  Amidst  the  jeers  of  the  ex¬ 
asperated  burgesses,  a  serf  splits  his  head  with  a  hatchet.  On 
the  slippery  floor  of  the  cellar,  his  blood  mingles  its  unctuous 
purple  with  the  wine  from  the  barrels  which  have  been  staved 
in.  Massacres  are  multiplied.  The  dwellings  of  the  clerics 
and  the  nobles  are  plundered  and  given  to  the  flames.  The 
cathedral  is  burnt  ;  its  immense  roof  falls  with  a  crash  on  the 
reliquaries  and  silver  candlesticks.  The  adversaries  of  the 
burgesses  take  flight  in  various  disguises.  They  could  be  seen, 
men  and  women,  descending  the  side  of  the  mountain  and 
slipping  through  the  vineyards  by  which  the  town  was  sur¬ 
rounded.  The  corpse  of  the  bishop,  deprived  of  its  clothing, 
was  dragged  through  the  market-place,  where  it  remained 
till  the  next  day,  naked,  soiled,  pitiable,  a  butt  for  the  worst 
outrages.  Only  then  the  burgesses  allowed  it  to  be  buried. 

The  movement  spread.  The  burgesses  of  Laon  obtained 
the  support  of  Thomas  de  Marie,  castellan  of  Crecy-sur-Serre 
and  of  Nouvion  l’ Abbesse,  one  of  the  most  redoubtable  feudal 
bandits  of  the  time.  He  was  the  son  of  Enguerran  de  Boves. 
150 


THE  COMMUNES 


His  youth  had  been  passed  in  robbing  pilgrims,  by  which  he 
had  laid  the  foundation  of  his  enormous  fortune.  Then,  after 
some  years  of  orgies  and  debauchery,  he  had  installed  himself 
in  his  castle,  as  an  open  brigand.  He  made  terror  reign  in 
the  surrounding  country,  continuing  to  rob  in  order  to  enrich 
himself  further,  continuing  to  kill  and  torture  to  amuse  him¬ 
self.  44  He  hung  his  captives  in  the  air,”  writes  Guibert, 
44  hanging  on  to  them  with  his  own  hand,  by  the  most  delicate 
organs,  which  yielding  to  the  weight  of  the  body  were  torn 
away,  and  through  the5  gaping  hole  the  intestines  flowed  out. 
He  hung"  them  by  their  thumbs  and  laid  great  stones  on  their 
shoulders  to  increase  their  weight.  He  beat  them  to  death 
with  clubs  and  broke  their  bones.” 

It  was  impossible  to  count  the  number  of  victims  whom  he 
had  left  to  rot  in  the  depths  of  his  dungeons.  He  slowly  burned 
his  captives’  feet,  and  when  they  could  no  longer  walk,  because 
he  had  tortured  them  so  much,  he  cut  off  their  feet  ;  since, 
said  he,  for  that  matter,  they  could  no  longer  use  them. 

“  One  day  he  thrust  his  lance  so  deeply  through  the  mouth 
of  one  poor  wretch  that  the  steel  pierced  his  intestines.”  The 
burgesses  of  Laon  had  in  him  a  useful  auxiliary.  But  the 
King  intervened  and  sent  his  troops  against  the  rebels.  The 
burgesses  fled,  while  the  nobles  and  the  clerics  returned  with¬ 
in  the  walls  of  Laon.  4 4  Now  the  knights  having  escaped 
massacre,”  says  Guibert,  44  stole  from  the  houses  of  the  fugitives 
all  their  provisions,  furniture,  and  even  hinges  and  bolts.” 
The  peasants  of  the  surrounding  districts,  following  the  example 
of  their  lords — that  is  to  say,  of  the  nobles  established  in  Laon — 
invaded  the  captured  town  and,  for  several  days,  plundered 
and  destroyed.  The  commune  disappeared  then  (1114)  ;  one 
might  have  thought  for  ever  ;  but  in  the  year  1128,  under 
the  name  of  the  44  institution  of  peace,”  the  inhabitants  of  Laon 
obtained  their  communal  charter. 

What  is  in  reality  the  proclamation  of  a  commune  at  the 
beginning  of  the  twelfth  century  ?  We  have  nowadays  acts 
by  which  the  civil  personality  is  recognized  in  a  society  ;  by  a 
communal  charter  the  feudal  personality  was  recognized  as 
belonging  to  an  urban  community. 

The  commune  becomes  a  feudal  person,  a  collective  lord- 

151 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


ship  ;  an  association  of  non-nobles  united  to  form  a  collective 
noble.  Like  a  baron  in  his  keep,  it  enters  into  the  feudal 
hierarchy.  It  becomes  the  vassal  of  a  suzerain  who  governs  it 
according  to  the  customs  of  the  nobles,  and  to  whom  it  will 
render  the  service  of  the  nobles,  the  service  of  the  army  and 
progress,  the  service  of  war  ;  and  it  in  its  turn  becomes  suzerain 
to  other  vassals.  The  prerogatives  which  it  has  won  are  exactly 
those  which  were  attached  to  the  possession  of  a  barony.  It 
has  a  seal  like  the  feudal  lord  and,  like  him,  it  has  its  keep, 
which  is  called  the  watch-tower.  Should  it  happen  that  a 
King  destroys  a  commune  he  will  have  its  watch-tower  rased 
to  the  ground,  as  he  would  have  the  seigniorial  keep,  if  he  had 
captured  a  fief. 

What  would  the  clauses  of  a  communal  charter  be  ?  We 
can  judge  by  that  of  Beauvais  : 

44  The  inhabitants  of  the  town  shall  take  an  oath  to  the 
commune  ;  they  will  lend  each  other  mutual  assistance  ; — the 
peers  of  the  commune,  otherwise  known  as  sheriffs  or 
councillors  {jurés),  will  give  justice  to  all  ; — if  some  one  after 
doing  an  injury  to  one  of  the  members  of  the  commune  should 
find  refuge  in  a  feudal  domain,  the  peers  shall  demand  of  the 
lord  reparation  for  the  loss  occasioned,  and,  if  the  lord  refuse 
this,  they  will  take  vengeance  on  him  or  his  men  ;  the  peers 
shall  protect  the  merchants  who  come  to  the  market  of  the 
town  and  shall  punish  those  who  molest  them  ; — if  the  commune 
shall  be  at  open  war  against  declared  enemies,  none  of  its 
members  shall  lend  money  to  them  ;  should  the  commune  set 
out  to  fight  an  enemy,  none  of  its  members  shall  hold  com¬ 
munications  with  any  of  these  latter  ; — if  the  debtor  of  a  member 
of  the  commune  finds  refuge  in  a  feudal  domain,  the  lord  of 
the  domain  shall  pay  the  debt  or  expel  the  debtor,  and  if  he 
does  not  do  this,  the  commune  shall  levy  a  fine  on  such  of  the 
lord’s  men  as  they  can  manage  to  capture.” 

It  is  an  organization  at  once  military  and  commercial.  It 
was  the  rich  merchants  who  directed  the  communal  revolution  ; 
it  was  made  for  their  profit.  At  St.  Omer  the  guild  draws  from 
their  coffers  the  funds  destined  for  the  fort’fications. 

It  is,  nevertheless,  an  error  to  say  that  the  movement  was 
not  made  in  favour  of  the  common  people,  and  that  they  were 
152 


THE  COMMUNES 


too  humble  still  to  exercise  an  influence  on  the  course  of  events. 
At  this  time  in  the  towns  the  interests  of  the  people  are  bound 
up  with  those  of  the  patricians.  The  people  form  their  clientele. 
Between  the  people  and  their  leaders  there  exist  those  same 
paternal  ties  which  we  saw  a  century  earlier  between  the 
inhabitants  of  the  town  and  its  lords.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  twelfth  century  the  patricians  render  to  the  companies 
of  traders  the  same  services  of  protection  that  the  lords 
rendered  to  the  rural  inhabitants  at  the  beginning  of  the 
eleventh  century.  And  the  same  sentiments  of  unity  and  re¬ 
ciprocal  affection  exist  between  them,  the  same  co-ordination 
of  efforts.  It  is  thanks  to  the  efforts  of  the  merchant-patricians 
that  industry  advances  and  the  trades  prosper.  It  is  thanks 
to  their  efforts  that  the  crafts  reach  perfection.  So  that  the 
triumph  of  the  patricians  over  the  lords  in  the  twelfth  century 
was  likewise  the  triumph  of  the  crafts.  These  relations  are 
to  be  profoundly  modified  a  century  later.  It  is  a  mistake  to 
judge  the  sentiments  and  conditions  in  the  towns  at  the  be¬ 
ginning  of  the  twelfth  century  by  what  they  shall  have  become 
in  the  thirteenth. 

The  communal  charter  having  the  effect  of  making  the 
commune  a  feudal  personality,  its  chief  result  was  to  give  to 
its  representatives  a  judicial  authority.  In  the  Middle  Ages 
it  was  said  “  the  fief  and  justice  are  all  one.”  The  right  of 
administering  justice  was  the  principal  attribute  of  the  feudal 
lord,  and  it  was  by  it  that  he  governed  his  vassals  ;  just  as  it 
was  the  principal  attribute  of  the  King  himself  who  governed 
his  kingdom  by  it.  And  this  communal  justice  exercised  by 
the  magistracy,  for  this  is  the  name  by  which  in  the  towns  in 
the  north  they  designated  what  we  should  call  the  municipal 
council,  was  as  extensive  as  that  of  the  lords.  It  went  as  far 
as  the  right  of  punishing  by  fine,  imprisonment,  and  even  death. 
The  municipal  bodies  had  their  pillory  where  they  had  the 
condemned  exposed  and  beaten  with  rods.  They  had  gibbets 
on  which  they  had  people  hung  and  left  the  corpses  suspended. 
One  asks  how  the  communes  had  been  able  to  snatch  from  the 
feudal  power  the  most  important  of  its  attributes  ;  why, 
because  they  had  themselves  become,  as  we  have  just  said, 
a  feudal  power.  And,  to  go  more  deeply  into  the  matter, 

153 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


the  feudal  lords  had  drawn  their  power  from  the  authority  of 
the  family  ;  the  heads  of  the  communes  drew  theirs  from  the 
same  source.  We  have  seen  that  the  towns  had  been  formed 
as  fiefs  under  the  action  of  the  family.  44  Lignages  ”  had  con¬ 
stituted  themselves  there  which  had  grouped  themselves  into 
44  parages.”  The  union  of  these  formed  the  town.  Like  the 
city  of  antiquity,  the  French  town  is  in  the  twelfth  century 
the  union  of  a  certain  number  of  families,  to  each  of  which  are 
attached  a  certain  number  of  clients.  It  is  not  a  democracy 
but  an  aristocracy  formed  by  a  grouping  of  patrons  and 
clients.  The  heads  of  these  44  parages,”  followed  by  their 
clientele,  brought  about  the  communal  revolution,  and  when 
the  town  was  free  they  quite  naturally  found  themselves  at 
its  head.  Thus  is  also  explained  that  for  the  formation  of 
the  first  sheriffdoms  or  magistracies  no  election  was  made. 

It  is  to  be  noted  also  that  in  a  number  of  towns  some 
44  ilots  ”  (helots)  are  to  be  found  even  later  than  the  communal 
charter,  withdrawn  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  magistracies. 
Here  a  slave  was  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  King,  further 
on  of  a  bishop,  there  of  an  abbey,  elsewhere  of  some  particular 
lord.  What  we  have  said  about  the  formation  of  the  towns 
will  be  remembered.  A  quarter,  a  street,  sometimes  a  single 
house  will  be  found  withdrawn  from  the  common  jurisdiction, 
answerable  to  some  particular  jurisdiction. 

A  feature  which  strikes  one  in  studying  these  communal 
constitutions  is  the  close  solidarity  in  which  they  try  to  unite 
the  members  of  the  urban  groups.  44  All  the  men  of  the  com¬ 
mune  shall  help  each  other  with  all  their  might,”  says  the 
charter  of  Senlis.  44  Each  man  of  the  commune  shall  be  faithful 
to  his  sworn  comrade,  shall  go  to  his  help,  shall  give  him  help 
and  council,”  says  the  charter  of  Abbeville.  The  charters 
are  called  44  brotherhoods,”  44  charities,”  44  institutions  of 
peace,”  or  more  simply  44  peaces  ” — the  44  peace  of  Amiens,” 
the  44  peace  of  Arras.”  The  members  of  the  commune  are  the 
members  of  the  peace  (paiseurs)  ;  the  town  hall  will  be  the 
44  house  of  the  peace  ”  ;  the  communal  territory  the  44  en¬ 
closure  of  the  peace,”  the  oath  of  the  members  the  44  oath  of 
the  peace.”  For  the  seigniorial  authority,  whose  principal  rôle 
was  to  assure  peace  to  the  burgesses  and  to  maintain  it,  outside 
154 


THE  COMMUNES 


by  force  of  arms,  within  by  the  exercise  of  a  vigilant  and  active 
power,  has  become  weak  and  remote.  And  how  important 
it  is  to  replace  it  by  a  profound  sentiment  of  reciprocal  devotion, 
concord,  and  unity. 

Moreover,  in  spite  of  having  given  up  a  great  part  of  their 
power  and  their  privileges  by  the  communal  charter,  the  lords 
have  not  entirely  renounced  their  suzerainty  over  the  town, 
in  which  they  have  still  to  exercise  rights  and  duties  which 
Beaumanoir  will  define  in  the  thirteenth  century  with  the 
precision  of  his  fine  genius  : 

“  Each  lord  who  has  good  towns  under  him  in  which  there 
are  communes  ought  to  take  account  each  year  of  the  state 
of  the  town,  and  how  it  is  maintained  and  governed  by  the 
mayors,  and  by  those  who  are  set  up  to  watch  over  and  govern 
it,  so  that  the  rich  may  fear  that  if  they  offend  they  will  be 
severely  punished,  and  that  the  poor  in  the  said  towns  may 
gain  their  bread  in  peace.” 

In  these  last  lines  Beaumanoir  alludes  to  the  divisions 
which  will  break  out  in  the  towns  in  the  course  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  and  of  which  we  shall  have  to  speak  further  on. 

For  it  would  be  an  error  to  believe  that  the  action  of  the 
communal  charters  procured  for  the  towns  in  France  the 
peaceful  delectations  of  the  golden  age.  We  have  said  that 
the  communes  became  feudal  persons.  They  acquired  their 
aggressive  and  warlike  spirit.  Jacques  de  Vitry  at  the  beginning 
of  the  thirteenth  century  hardly  exaggerates  in  his  sermon  to 
the  burgesses  : 

“  The  burgesses,  relying  on  their  numbers,  oppress  their 
neighbours  and  subject  them  by  violence.  Brutal  com¬ 
munes  which  are  not  content  with  overwhelming  the  nobles 
of  their  neighbourhood  .  .  .  they  aim  at  the  ruin  of  their 
neighbours,  destroy  the  cities  and  the  other  communes  by  their 
persecutions.  The  majority  of  the  communes  make  rabid  war 
against  one  another.  The  members  of  communes  are  not  only 
seen  attacking  their  neighbours,  but  also  strangers  and  pilgrims, 
defenceless  people,  whom  they  overwhelm  with  illegal  exactions 
and  impose  upon  in  every  way.  .  .  .  Outside  war,  inside 
terror.” 

The  burgesses  had  created  the  communal  movement  from 

155 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


a  desire  for  union.  But  here  are  now  for  the  first  time  rivalries 
between  the  principal  families  which  the  seigniorial  justice  had 
until  then  kept  in  peace.  The  great  patricians  have  in  their 
train  each  his  clientele.  There  are  few  French  towns  which 
from  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century  are  not  troubled  by 
these  dissensions,  which  often  give  rise  to  bloody  conflicts. 
Beaumanoir  expresses  himself  here  again  clearly  and  points 
out  to  the  lord  of  the  town  the  line  of  conduct  he  should  hold  : 

“  When  a  disagreement  arises  between  the  citizens  of  a 
good  town  through  misunderstanding  or  through  hatred,  the 
lord  should  not  allow  it,  and  even  if  one  of  the  parties  will  not 
deign  to  plead,  rather  he  ought  to  take  the  parties  and  keep 
them  in  prison  until  a  stable  peace  is  made  between  them, 
or  stable  guarantees  if  peace  cannot  be  made  ;  for  otherwise 
the  good  towns  would  suffer  by  the  struggles  between  the 
families.” 

In  several  towns  of  the  South  which  had  managed  to  free 
themselves  from  the  seigniorial  suzerainty  more  completely 
than  those  of  the  North,  this  recourse  to  the  authority  of  the 
suzerain  to  settle  quarrels  among  the  families  being  no  longer 
possible,  they  were  obliged  to  appeal  to  those  peculiar  person¬ 
ages  whom  they  called  “  podestas.”  One  sees  such  cities  as 
Marseilles,  Arles,  or  Avignon  calling  in  foreigners,  generally 
Italians,  and  asking  them  to  govern  for  a  certain  time  with 
dictatorial  power.  Even  the  constitution  of  the  town  was  put 
into  their  hands,  provided  that  they  governed  without  hate, 
without  favour,  without  personal  profit — the  only  means  of 
avoiding  the  conflicts  between  the  patrician  families  which 
were  quarrelling  over  the  administration.  These  “  tyrants,” 
or  podestas,  strangers  to  the  civil  struggles  which  were  destroy¬ 
ing  the  town,  were  alone  capable  of  re-establishing  order  there 
by  the  exercise  of  an  absolute  power. 

After  this  there  will  arise  dissensions  between  the  patricians 
and  their  clientele  on  the  one  side,  and  the  popular  class,  “  the 
commons,”  on  the  other.  They  will  fill  the  end  of  the  thirteenth 
and  the  fourteenth  century,  and  will  cause  rivers  of  blood  to 
flow.  Far  from  reducing  the  distance  which  separated  the 
common  people  from  the  patricians,  the  establishment  of  the 
communes  only  accentuated  it,  for  to  their  wealth  the  patricians 
156 


THE  COMMUNES 


now  added  the  government  of  the  city,  which  was  until  then 
in  the  hands  of  the  lord.  And  having  no  longer  need  of  the 
people  in  their  struggle  against  the  feudal  suzerain  they  will 
come  to  speak  only  with  scorn  of  those  “  whose  nails  were 
blackened  by  work.” 

We  must  say  yet  a  few  words  about  the  rural  communes. 
A  number  of  them  obtained  communal  charters  from  their 
lords  either  through  their  generosity,  for  money,  or  as  the  result 
of  an  armed  insurrection.  From  that  day  the  inhabitants 
chose  magistrates,  organized  a  militia,  and  surrounded  them¬ 
selves  with  fortifications.  The  village  became  a  town.  Some¬ 
times  several  villages  were  seen  to  unite  and  form  a  single 
community  which  obtained  a  communal  charter.  A  number 
of  examples  could  be  cited,  of  which  the  most  important  would 
be  the  seventeen  villages  of  the  people  of  Laon,  who  adopted 
as  their  political  centre  Anizy-le-Château,  and  received  in  1128 
the  charter  of  Laon  of  which  we  have  spoken. 

Among  these  charters  granted  to  the  villagers  a  special 
mention  should  be  made  of  the  famous  privilege  granted  by 
Louis  VI  to  the  town  of  Lorris-en-Gâtinais.  The  King  took 
measures  there  in  favour  of  his  subjects  against  his  own  agents. 
He  improved  the  condition  of  the  people  by  freeing  them  from 
the  bond  which  bound  them  to  the  soil.  For  the  future  each 
burgess  of  Lorris  could  leave  the  district  and  sell  what  goods 
he  possessed.  Forced  labours  were  suppressed,  and  the  service 
of  work  due  to  the  King  was  limited  to  one  day.  At  least 
this  service  due  to  the  King  could  not  take  the  inhabitants 
more  than  a  day’s  journey  from  their  home.  Direct  con¬ 
tributions  were  reduced  and  fixed.  The  majority  of  the  indirect 
contributions  were  suppressed,  especially  those  which  involved 
contributions  of  food.  The  fairs  and  markets  of  the  country 
were  made  safe  by  a  special  protection,  extending  to  the 
merchants  who  went  there  and  to  their  merchandise.  Finally, 
in  judicial  matters  the  royal  Provost  had  the  fines  which  could 
be  inflicted  reduced,  and  procedure  simplified.  It  is  one  of 
the  most  active  efforts  which  have  ever  been  made  by  a  prince 
to  improve  the  condition  of  his  subjects,  and  one  of  the  most 
fruitful.  For  the  example  given  by  the  King  was  followed 
by  his  barons,  and  the  number  of  rural  communes  which  soon 

157 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


received  “  the  Lorris  charter  ”  either  in  the  royal  domain  or 
in  the  lands  of  the  barons  increased  with  the  happiest  rapidity. 
And  each  found  in  it  his  profit  :  the  tenants  who  saw  their  lot 
improved  ;  the  lords  who  saw  the  population  of  their  domains 
increase,  the  towns  and  villages  prosper,  and,  hence,  their  own 
power  growing  and  even  the  dues  which  they  collected  from 
their  subjects  becoming  more  important.  For  if  it  is  true  that 
for  each  of  the  said  subjects  they  were  lighter,  the  sum  of 
the  amounts  collected  showed  a  sensible  increase  in  consequence 
of  the  development  of  the  population  and  the  general  prosperity. 

Sources. — Guibert  de  Nogent ,  ed.  Bourgin,  1907  ;  Beaumanoir,  Cou¬ 
tumes  de  Beauvaisis,  ed.  Salmon,  1899-1900,  2  vols.  ;  Aug.  Thierry, 
Monuments  inédits  de  V histoire  du  Tiers-Etat ,  1850-56,  2  vols.  ;  A.  Giry, 
Documents  sur  les  relations  de  la  royauté  avec  les  villes  en  France  de  1180 
à  1314 ,  1885  ;  Charters  and  documents  published  in  the  following  works  : 

Historical  Works. — A.  Luchaire,  Les  Communes  françaises  à  l'époque 
des  Capétiens  directs ,  a  new  edition  published  by  Halphen,  1911  ;  Paul 
Viollet,  Histoire  des  institutions  politiques  et  administratives  de  la  France , 
tome  iii.  1903  ;  A.  Giry  and  A.  Reville,  Emancipation  des  villes,  les  com¬ 
munes,  la  bourgeoisie ,  in  the  Histoire  Générale  of  La  visse  and  Rambaud, 
ii.  1893  ;  A.  Giry,  Histoire  de  la  ville  de  St.  Orner ,  et  de  ses  institutions, 
jusqu'au  XIVe  Siècle,  1887  ;  A.  Giry,  Etudes  sur  les  origines  de  la  commune 
de  St.  Quentin,  1887  ;  J.  Flammermont,  Histoire  des  institutions  muni¬ 
cipales  de  Senlis,  1881  ;  Maurice  Prou,  Les  coutumes  de  Lorris,  1884  ; 
Abel  Lefranc,  Histoire  de  la  ville  de  Noyon,  1887  ;  L.  H.  Labaude,  Histoire 
de  Beauvais,  1892  ;  And.  Ducom,  Essai  sur  ...  la  commune  d'Agen, 
1892  ;  R.  Villepelet,  Hist,  de  la  ville  de  Perigueux ,  1908  ;  F.  Lennel,  Hist, 
de  Calais,  tome  i.  1908  ;  G.  Bourgin,  La  commune  de  Soissons ,  1908  ; 
Imbart  de  la  Tour,  Histoire  de  la  nation  française,  edited  by  G.  Hanotaux, 
tome  iii.,  Histoire  politique  des  origines  à  1515  (1921). 


158 


CHAPTER  VIII 


THE  TWELFTH  CENTURY 


In  the  thirteenth  century  feudal  institutions  reached  their 
maturity  in  France.  The  peace  and  the  truce  of  God.  The 
“  forty  days  ”  of  the  King.  The  associations  of  peace.  Chivalry. 

The  initiation  of  knights.  The  virtue  of  love.  The  life  of  the 
castle.  The  barons  as  poets  and  singers.  The  lady  of  the 

castle.  The  tournaments. 

AT  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century  the  feudal 
organization  is  completed.  Beliefs  and  traditions 
have  become  absolutely  fixed.  No  one  has  any  doubt 
of  the  truth  of  the  religion  which  he  practises  fervently  ;  and 
these  beliefs  have  the  more  power  as  they  are  precise  and 
concrete.  In  the  thought  of  the  time  the  world  is  limited  to 
the  starry  vault  of  the  heavens  stretched  above  our  heads. 
Prayers  are  addressed  to  God  and  the  saints  as  to  very  near 
neighbours  constantly  intervening  in  human  affairs,  living 
familiarly  on  earth  as  much  as  beyond  the  clouds.  All  this 
gives  to  opinions  an  energy  we  know  no  longer. 

No  one  contests  the  value  of  the  morality  which  is  taught 
to  him,  the  legitimate  character  of  the  bonds  between  men 
which  no  one  dreams  of  changing.  No  one  imagines  a  social 
organization  preferable  to  that  which  surrounds  him,  or  even 
different  from  it.  Thus  as  Gaston  Paris  observes,  no  one 
dreams  of  protesting  against  the  society  in  which  he  finds 
himself  or  imagines  one  better  constituted,  44  but  all  wish 
that  it  should  be  more  completely  what  it  is  and  ought  to 
be.” 

At  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century  all  the  provinces 
are  definitely  adapted  to  the  same  social  forms  :  those  of 
feudalism — it  would  be  better  to  say,  of  protection. 


159 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


What  the  father  is  to  his  children  the  baron  is  to  his  faithful 
followers,  the  patrician  to  his  artisans,  the  great  feudal  lord 
to  his  vassals,  and  the  King  to  his  feudatories.  44  Eum 
pro  patre  habebitis  ”  (You  shall  have  him  for  a  father), 
the  Archbishop  of  Reims  said  in  987.  His  prophecy  came 
true. 

To  this  maturity  of  institutions  is  to  correspond  an  economic 
movement  of  a  power  and  intensity  which  have  astonished 
historians.  It  has  been  compared  to  the  economic  develop¬ 
ment  of  the  nineteenth  century,  but  while  our  time  has  owed 
this  formidable  forward  movement  to  the  discovery  of  the 
forces  of  steam  and  electricity,  and  the  progress  of  mechanics, 
the  twelfth  century  owed  it  to  moral  causes.  The  population 
grew  so  rapidly  that  it  reached  then  in  France  a  figure  equal 
to  that  of  our  own  time. 

Succeeding  to  the  eleventh  century,  the  epoch  of  heroic 
youth,  the  twelfth  century  will  give  to  France  the  full  fruition 
of  its  genius.  Our  literature,  our  art,  our  manners  will  be 
resplendent  throughout  Europe.  But  before  reaching  so  far 
there  will  still  be  many  grievous  checks,  disorders  to  appease, 
and  many  violences  to  be  calmed. 

One  can  easily  picture  French  society  at  the  beginning  of 
the  twelfth  century  such  as  we  have  just  described  it  :  a 
.  multitude  of  little  States  each  of  which  is  placed 

tions  o£SPeace  unc*er  suzerainty  of  its  patronal  head,  the 
*  baron  in  armour.  The  towns  themselves  had 
become  feudal  persons.  But  these  little  States  are  in  incessant 
conflict,  against  one  another.  Every  one  is  fighting  either  for 
self-defence  or  attack.  It  is  no  longer  the  anarchy  of  the 
ninth  and  tenth  centuries.  It  is  organized  war,  but  it  is  none 
the  less  war,  and  the  country  is  destroyed  by  it.  For  these 
armed  conflicts  consist  above  all  in  merciless  devastations. 
The  poets  and  the  chroniclers  of  the  times  have  left  descrip¬ 
tions  of  it.  Read  Garin  le  Loherain ,  Raoul  de  Cambrai ,  Girart 
de  Roussillon ,  Guibert  de  Nogent,  Ordericus  Vitalis. 

The  companies  of  troops  were  preceded  by  incendiaries 
and  foragers.  44  The  incendiaries  set  fire  to  the  villages,  the 
foragers  plunder  them,  carrying  off  sheep  and  killing  the 
shepherds.  The  distracted  inhabitants  are  burnt,  or  led  off 
160 


THE  TWELFTH  CENTURY 


with  their  hands  bound,  a  pitchfork  at  their  neck.  The 
alarm  sounds,  on  all  sides  there  is  general  dismay.”  “No 
longer  one  saw  the  mills  turning  ;  the  chimneys  smoked  no 
longer  ;  the  cocks  had  ceased  to  crow  and  the  great  dogs  to 
bark.  The  grass  grew  in  the  houses,  even  between  the  paving- 
stones  of  the  churches  ;  for  the  priests  had  abandoned  the 
broken  crucifixes  ”  ( Garin  le  Loherain).  “  To  devastate 

the  country  (Maine)  they  used  various  means.  The  vines 
were  torn  up,  fruit  trees  cut  down,  houses  and  fortifications 
destroyed.  This  rich  region  was  desolated  by  fire  and  sword, 
after  which  the  King  of  England  entered  the  town  of  Le  Mans 
in  triumph  ”  (Ordericus  Vitalis). 

The  Church  endeavoured  from  the  eleventh  century  onwards 
to  curb  these  furious  passions.  Does  not  Raoul  le  Glabre 
already  show  it  to  us  by  the  crowds  arriving  at  the  councils  ? 
They  press  around  their  bishops  armed  with  their  golden  crosses, 
and  raise  their  hands  despairingly  to  heaven,  crying  :  “  Peace  ! 
Peace  !  ”  The  efforts  of  the  prelates  result  in  the  proclamation 
of  peace  and  of  the  truce  of  God,  to  which  a  number  of  feudal 
lords  are  to  give  their  adhesion.  It  is  forbidden  to  do  violence 
to  priests,  churches,  women,  children,  peasants,  or  to  seize 
their  goods.  Such  is  the  peace  of  God.  It  is  forbidden  to 
wage  private  war  from  the  first  Sunday  of  Advent  up  to  the 
Octave  of  the  Epiphany,  from  the  first  day  of  Lent  up  to  the 
Octave  of  the  Ascension,  and  during  the  rest  of  the  year  from 
Wednesday  evening  to  Monday  morning — that  is,  during  the 
days  of  the  week  which  correspond  to  the  days  of  the  Passion. 
This  is  the  truce  of  God. 

To  the  truce  of  God  there  will  come  to  be  added  under 
Philip  Augustus  the  “  Quarantine  ”  of  the  King — that  is  to 
say,  the  obligation  to  allow  forty  days  to  pass  between  the 
offence  and  the  declaration  of  vengeance  which  is  to  be  taken  for 
it,  on  one  side,  and  on  the  other  the  opening  of  hostilities.  It 
is  obvious  that  a  right  of  civil  war,  parcelled  out,  cut  up,  delayed, 
confined  into  little  spaces  of  time,  would  find  peculiar  hindrances 
to  its  progress.  And  to  ensure  that  these  prescriptions  should 
be  observed,  there  were  formed  on  all  sides  the  famous  associa¬ 
tions  of  peace  which  came  to  be  veritable  armies  joined  by  nobles , 
burgesses,  artisans,  and  peasants. 

L 


161 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Moreover,  the  work  of  pacification  was  facilitated  by  the 
tendencies  which  showed  themselves  among  the  feudal  nobles 

themselves  ;  from  them  was  born  chivalry. 
iva.ry.  ^he  institution  of  chivalry  is  also  of  French 
origin  ;  it  shone  with  the  greatest  brilliance  in  France.  Listen 
to  the  Englishman  Gerald  of  Barri  celebrating  44  the  French 
chivalry,  whose  glory  dominates  (exsuperaï)  the  whole  world.” 

Chivalry  must  be  distinguished  from  the  feudal  nobility, 
although  it  issued  from  it  and  though  all  the  feudal  barons 
were  knights.  Chivalry  constituted  an  order  to  which  noble¬ 
men  were  generally  admitted  after  a  religious  ceremony  called 
investiture  and  after  being  dubbed  knight  by  another  knight, 
often  the  suzerain  of  the  fief  to  which  the  recipient  belonged. 
But  nobility  of  birth  was  not  a  condition  rigorously  required. 
One  sees  commoners,  even  serfs,  who  were  armed  knights  ;  and 
sometimes  nobles  remained  candidates  ( damoiseaux )  all  their 
lives  because  of  the  great  expense  occasioned  by  being  dubbed 
knight. 

The  ceremony  of  initiation  took  place  in  a  church,  or  in  the 
hall  of  a  castle,  or  even  in  open  country.  The  essential  part  of  it 
consisted  in  the  handing  of  the  sword  to  the  lord  by  the  young 
knight,  and  in  the  44  striking  ”  ( colée )  three  blows  with  the  flat 
of  the  sword  on  the  shoulder,  or  a  strong  blow  of  the  fist  on  the 
nape  of  the  neck  by  the  knight  who  is  receiving  the  novice. 
This  latter  had  passed  the  previous  night  in  prayer  at  the  foot 
of  an  altar.  In  the  morning  he  had  bathed  and  clothed  him¬ 
self  in  white  ;  then  he  had  received  the  sacraments  of  con¬ 
fession  and  communion,  for  the  Church  had  come  to  consider 
chivalry  as  an  eighth  sacrament. 

Here  are  the  principal  details  of  the  ceremony. 

The  lord  demanded  of  the  novice  if  he  was  resolved  to  live 
conformably  to  the  good  of  the  Church,  to  honour,  and  to  the 
laws  of  chivalry.  The  novice  swore  to  do  so,  after  which  he 
was  invested,  piece  by  piece,  by  knights  or  sometimes  by  ladies 
or  maidens,  with  the  different  parts  of  the  armour  which  was 
worn  by  a  knight.  He  was  given  his  spurs,  the  hauberk  or 
coat  of  mail,  the  cuirass,  the  armlets,  the  gauntlets  ;  finally 
the  lord  girded  on  his  sword.  This  was  the  initiation.  After 
which  the  lord  who  was  conferring  the  order  rose  from  his  seat 
162 


THE  TWELFTH  CENTURY 


and  gave  the  stroke  (colée)  to  the  recipient  who  was  kneeling 
before  him. 

The  lord  said  :  “In  the  name  of  God,  St.  Michael,  and  St. 
George,  I  dub  thee  knight”;  and  he  added:  “Be  valiant.” 
Finally  the  new  knight  was  presented  with  his  helmet,  shield, 
and  lance,  and  a  horse  was  led  up  to  him.  Before  a  numerous 
company  he  had  to  leap  on  it,  if  possible  without  using  the 
stirrup,  perform  a  gallop,  run  a  quintaine — that  is  to  say,  to 
run  through  or  to  overthrow,  with  his  lance  couched,  a  mannikin 
clothed  in  iron  armour  which  was  supported  by  a  lance  fixed 
in  the  ground.  The  day  was  finished  in  feasting  and  rejoicing, 
and  if  the  new  knight  belonged  to  a  rich  family  in  jousts  and 
tournaments. 

The  moral  obligations  imposed  on  the  knight  formed  the 
importance  of  the  institution  ;  to  remain  subject  to  his  suzerain, 
to  fight  for  the  faith,  to  be  faithful  to  his  word,  to  protect  the 
weak,  unfortunate  and  helpless  men,  women  and  children,  to 
fight  against  injustice. 

The  mediaeval  poets  have  left  a  description  of  the  ideal 
knight.  He  should  be  “  free  of  heart  and  handsome  in  body, 
gallant,  gentle,  and  modest,  not  given  to  talking.”  Add  to 
this  the  two  great  qualities  demanded  from  the  “  rich  men  ” 
of  the  time,  valour,  and  generosity  in  giving  alms. 

Under  all  circumstances  the  knight  must  defend  his  faith. 
“  And  in  making  this  solemn  promise  of  maintaining  the  faith 
of  Jesus  Christ,  it  was  the  custom  in  France  that  the  knights 
hearing  Mass  should  hold  their  drawn  swords  upright  during 
the  recital  of  the  Gospel  ”  ( Lacurne  de  Sainte-Palaye). 

If  a  knight  broke  the  laws  of  chivalry,  failed  in  honour  or 
broke  his  oath,  he  was  degraded.  The  essential  part  of  this 
last  ceremony  was  that  a  felon  knight  had  his  golden  spur  cut 
off  level  with  the  heel. 

These  institutions  found  their  complement  in  the  essential 
virtue  we  have  already  indicated.  The  lord  should  love  his 
vassals  ;  the  vassals  should  love  their  lord.  The  author  of 
Renart  le  Nouvel  expresses  this  with  striking  precision  in  two 
lines  of  verse  in  which  he  compares  society  to  a  ship  : 

And  the  ship  with  concord 
Is  fortified  by  the  nobility. 


168 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Thus  is  seen  to  develop  the  great  virtue  of  the  Middle 
Ages  :  love .  Never  has  the  divine  and  human  precept,  “  Love 
one  another,’’  penetrated  hearts  more  profoundly. 

Love,  Charity,  and  God 
Are  all  one. 

( Renart  le  Nouvel.) 

And  the  chief  result  of  this  love  is  generosity  in  giving.  The 
lord,  the  wealthy,  must  give.  This  was  a  necessary  virtue  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  when  the  means  of  livelihood  or  of  making 
a  fortune  were  scanty,  and  not  easily  come  at  ;  and  in  the 
absence  of  organized  credit. 

“You  will  be  pleased  to  ride  abroad,  to  distribute  fiefs  to 
knights,  vair  and  minever  to  those  who  have  nothing.  A  true 
knight  exalts  himself  in  giving  largesse,  and,  if  he  is  greedy, 
each  day  of  his  life  causes  loss  to  others  ”  (Garin  le  Loherain). 

“  What  is  knowledge,”  says  Robert  of  Blois,  “  if  greed  goes 
with  it  ?  What  is  valour  in  a  calculating  man  ?”  “  Whence 

comes  the  authority  of  princes  and  valiant  knights  ?  From 
largesse — Generosity  is  the  queen  of  virtues.  The  great  lords 
have  wherewith  to  give,  and  do  give.  That  is  the  secret  of  their 
power.” 

But  man  is  man  after  all,  and  virtues  most  enjoined  by 
tradition,  by  custom,  even  by  the  very  constitution  of  the 
society  in  which  he  lives,  by  priests  and  poets,  can  fail  to  be 
impressed  on  him.  And  again  there  is  a  limit  to  the  means  of 
doing  good.  Moreover,  the  poor  and  humble  must  know  how 
to  bear  suffering  : 

“There  will  never  be  a  poor  man  who  does  not  suffer,” 
says  Robert  of  Blois  again. 

Such  was,  in  its  rude  crust  of  stone  and  iron,  the  social  mind 
of  the  twelfth  century  :  “Be  generous,  know  how  to  bear 
suffering,  love  one  another  to  the  best  of  your  ability.” 

The  lord  lived  with  his  household  in  his  castle.  In  the 
twelfth  century  the  nobles  have  almost  entirely  given  up  living 

Li!  in  th  *n  towns’  where  they  had  enjoyed  living  in 
Qagj.je  the  previous  century,  to  dwell  in  country  domains. 

The  thirteenth-century  castle  is  the  centre  of  a 
vast  system  of  agricultural  works.  The  ^artisans’  workshops 
which  were  attached  to  it  have  not  disappeared  ;  but  they  have 
164 


THE  TWELFTH  CENTURY 


not  been  developed,  for  the  towns  have  given  a  great  impulse 
to  trade,  and  the  castle  can  obtain  manufactured  goods  from 
the  travelling  merchants. 

At  the  centre  is  the  dominating  tower,  the  keep,  at  the  foot 
of  which  is  built  the  “  palace,”  the  residence  of  the  lord  and 
his  immediate  family.  At  the  top  of  the  tower  the  watch 
scans  the  horizon.  He  gives  warning  of  the  approach  of  an 
enemy,  or  signals  the  arrival  of  visitors  for  whom  the  draw¬ 
bridge  must  be  let  down.  To  kill  time  he  plays  the  flute, 
timbrel,  or  pipe,  or  sings  one  of  those  love  songs  which  have 
been  called  “  watchmen’s  songs  ”  ( chansons  de  guettes). 

The  approaches  to  the  keep  are  guarded  by  men-at-arms. 
As  at  the  threshold  of  the  churches,  beggars  stand  at  the 
entrance  of  the  palace  : 

At  the  gate  were  folk 
Awaiting  alms. 

( Châtelain  de  Coucy ,  v.  2991.) 

They  stand  generally  on  the  lower  steps  of  the  great  stair¬ 
case  which  leads  to  the  lord’s  dwelling,  a  staircase  which  plays 
an  important  rôle  in  feudal  life,  for  the  guests  of  the  castle 
enjoy  taking  the  air  and  talking  on  the  steps  of  grey  marble. 
On  the  platform  at  the  top  of  the  high  staircase  the  baron 
holds  his  Court  and  administers  justice  to  the  men  of  his  fief. 
At  the  foot  of  the  staircase  single  combats,  jousts,  and  tiltings 
take  place.  On  the  steps  are  the  spectators  ;  and  the  com¬ 
batants  go  there  to  rest. 

The  stone  staircase  is  supported  by  vaults  under  which 
the  poor  and  beggars  can  take  shelter.  We  read  in  the  Life 
of  Saint  Alexius  that  he  lived  for  several  years  under  the  steps 
of  the  paternal  castle  before  he  was  recognized. 

There  were  two  principal  apartments  in  the  feudal  castle  : 
the  hall  and  the  chamber.  In  the  hall  the  public  life  was 
passed.  The  lord  held  his  assizes  there,  received  messengers, 
gave  banquets.  In  the  chamber,  which  he  shared  with  his 
wife,  he  received  his  intimates.  In  the  chamber,  round  the 
fire,  long  gossipings  took  place  on  winter  nights. 

The  hall,  of  vast  dimensions,  opened  off  the  top  of  the 
staircase.  At  one  end  was  a  deep  stage  running  right  across 
the  room  and  raised  a  few  feet  from  the  floor,  called  the  dais. 

165 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


There  the  lord  and  his  lady  received  their  guests,  both  seated 
in  arm-chairs  [sièges  pliants).  There  were  the  high  tables,  so 
called  because  they  overlooked  the  low  tables  standing  on  the 
floor  of  the  hall.  At  these  high  tables  sat  the  lord,  his  lady, 
and  guests  of  distinction.  The  dais  was  directly  lighted  by  a 
large  window  jutting  outwards.  In  the  space  furnished  by 
this  bay  in  the  interior  of  the  room  the  servants  placed  a  table 
useful  for  serving  purposes  and  dessert. 

In  the  hall,  great  wooden  chests,  containing  the  goods  of 
the  lord  and  lady,  served  as  seats.  For  the  furniture  of  these 
rooms  was  of  the  simplest.  They  were  almost  empty.  The 
seats  in  the  hall  were  stone  benches  hewn  out  along  the  walls 
or  in  the  bays  of  the  windows.  They  were  supplemented  by 
folding  seats  which  were  brought  in  on  occasion  ;  in  the  same 
way  the  table,  formed  of  planks  resting  on  trestles,  was  put  up 
at  meal-times.  The  credence  tables,  holding  gold  and  silver 
dishes,  did  not  make  their  appearance  before  the  fifteenth 
century. 

The  great  flags  of  the  floor  were  strewn  with  rushes — whence 
the  word  joncher  (to  strew) — with  sweet-smelling  herbs,  or  some¬ 
times  with  flowers. 

Fresh  rushes  and  mint  they  have  had  brought, 

And  soon  the  dwelling  they  fill  with  sweet  perfume  ( empimenter ). 

(Les  Narbonnais ,  v.  2405.) 

The  word  empimenter  means  to  perfume  by  burning  juniper 
wood  or  Eastern  perfumes. 

One  day  Duke  Begon  was  in  the  Castle  of  Belin,  with  the 
beautiful  Béatrice,  the  daughter  of  Duke  Milo  of  Blaives  (his 
wife).  He  kissed  her  mouth  and  her  face.  The  lady  smiled 
sweetly.  In  the  hall  their  children  played  before  them.  The 
eldest  was  named  Garin  and  was  twelve  years  old.  The  second, 
Hernaudin,  was  only  six.  Six  noble  youths  shared  their  sport, 
running,  jumping,  laughing,  and  playing  at  catch-who-catch- 
can. 

The  Duke  looked  at  them  and  began  to  sigh.  The  fair 
Béatrice  noticed  it.  “  What  have  you  to  worry  about,  my 
lord  Begon  ?  ”  said  she  ;  “  you  so  lofty,  so  noble,  so  bold  a 
knight.  Are  you  not  a  rich  man  ?  Your  coffers  are  full  of 
gold  and  silver  ;  your  wardrobes  of  vair  and  minever.  You 
166 


THE  TWELFTH  CENTURY 


have  hawks  and  falcons.  In  your  stables  are  many  draught 
horses  and  palfreys,  mules  and  valuable  horses.  You  have 
overcome  all  your  enemies.  For  six  days’  journey  round  Belin 
there  is  not  a  knight  who  would  hesitate  to  come  at  your  call. 
Why  are  you  anxious  ?  ”  ( Garin  le  Loherain). 

Every  feudal  lord  had  a  Court,  similar  to  the  royal  Court, 
which  had,  for  that  matter,  sprung  directly  from  the  Court 
of  the  baron.  Since  the  time  of  the  wooden  keeps  he  had 
lodged  and  supported  there  a  large  household  of  vassals, 
servants,  artisans,  and  domestics.  How  much  larger  it  had 
become  in  the  great  dwellings  of  the  twelfth  century  ! 

The  squires,  called  also  the  poursuivants  because  they 
aspired  to  the  order  of  chivalry,  were  divided  into  several 
classes,  according  to  the  services  to  which  they  were  set.  There 
was  the  body  squire,  attached  either  to  the  lord  or  his  lady  ; 
the  squire  of  the  chamber,  or  the  chamberlain  ;  the  squire  of 
the  table,  or  the  seneschal  ;  the  squire  of  the  stable,  or  the 
constable  ;  the  squire  of  the  wine  cellar,  or  the  butler  ;  the 
squire  of  the  pantry,  or  the  pantler,  etc. 

Under  their  orders,  servants  set  up  and  laid  the  tables, 
brought  water  for  the  washing  of  the  hands  before  meals, 
served  the  dishes,  poured  out  the  wine.  They  were  concerned 
with  the  pantry,  the  wine  cellars,  the  kitchen,  the  service  of 
the  chambers  ;  they  saw  to  the  arrangement  of  the  songs  and 
amusements  which  followed  the  meals  ;  and  before  the  assembly 
broke  up  they  presented  the  sweet  wines,  sweetmeats,  the  hot 
and  spiced  wines  which  the  guests  took  before  retiring  to 
bed. 

The  squires  accompanied  guests  to  the  rooms  prepared  for 
them.  More  important  still  was  their  military  service.  They 
kept  in  order  the  lord’s  weapons,  equipped  him  with  them, 
took  care  of  his  horses,  looked  after  their  harness,  followed 
the  lord  in  war  and  to  the  Court  of  his  suzerain.  They  accom¬ 
panied  him  to  the  tournament. 

These  squires,  knights’  sons,  were  destined  for  the  order  of 
chivalry.  They  were  the  sons  of  the  vassals  or  relatives  of 
the  lord. 

The  principal  officer  at  the  Court  of  the  baron,  as  at  the 
Court  of  the  King,  was  the  seneschal.  He  had  among  his 

167 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


functions  the  superintendence  of  the  household.  His  relations 
with  his  lord  were  very  close.  A  saying  ran  : 

By  the  seneschal  of  the  house 
You  shall  know  its  lord. 

The  squires  and  the  young  poursuivants- at- arms,  who  lived 
in  the  baron’s  castle  and  served  him,  received  from  him  the 
education  which  was  to  enable  them  to  maintain  their  rank 
in  feudal  society.  They  were  also  called  the  “  supported  ” 
(nourris),  and,  under  this  title,  regarded  themselves  as  belonging 
to  the  lord’s  family. 

For  he  is  my  kinsman  who  will  give  me  to  eat. 

(Baudoin  de  Sebourc ,  Chant  xix.  v.  550.) 

They  received  from  the  seneschal  distributions  of  meat — - 
by  this  word  is  understood  “  food  ”  in  general — and  from  the 
butler  some  measures  of  wine  ;  unless  the  lady  of  the  castle 
took  this  task  on  herself. 

William  of  the  Crooked  Nose  returns  from  the  disaster  of 
Larchamp.  He  enters  the  hall  of  his  castle  : 

“  Oh  !  good  hall,  how  long  and  wide  you  are, 

On  all  sides  you  are  adorned  : 

Blessed  be  the  lady  who  has  adorned  thee. 

Oh  !  high  tables,  how  lofty  you  are  ; 

Linen  cloths  cover  you  ; 

These  vessels  filled  to  the  brim.  .  .  .” 

But  the  knights  bachelors,  the  nourris  of  Count  William, 
who  are  generally  at  these  tables,  sit  there  no  longer  :  they 
have  been  killed  in  battle. 

No  sons  of  French  mothers  eat  there — 

At  Larchamp  they  have  had  their  heads  cut  off. 

William  weeps  and  Guiburc  (his  wife)  faints  ; 

He  lifts  her  up  and  comforts  her.  .  .  . 

The  scene  is  sublime. 

The  least  important  lord  would  maintain  several  squires 
in  his  castle.  There  is  mention  in  Guillaume  de  Dole  of  a  poor 
lord  :  “  He  is  not  rich  :  scarcely  could  he  support  six  squires 
from  his  lands.” 

Auberi  addresses  his  companions  : 

“  Twenty  knights  must  be  living  here, 

And  I  see  only  two  at  this  supper.  .  .  .” 


168 


(Auberi.) 


THE  TWELFTH  CENTURY 


The  vassals  are  obliged  to  show  themselves  at  regular 
intervals,  every  month  or  every  fortnight,  and  on  great  feast- 
days,  at  the  Court  of  their  lord,  where  in  full  assembly  they  give 
judgment,  under  the  presidency  of  their  lord,  on  any  quarrels 
which  have  arisen  among  the  dwellers  in  the  domain. 

These  assizes  were  generally  held  in  the  hall  of  the  castle, 
which  received  hence  the  name  of  the  “  mandate  ”  (mandement)  : 

And  the  barons  go  up  to  the  mandate 
Where  the  Duke  sits  between  him  and  his  men. 

( Les  Quatre  fils  Aymon,  v.  447.) 

Let  us  look  at  the  lord  in  the  hall  surrounded  by  his  vassals. 
“He  wears  a  cloak  of  blood-red  cloth,  trimmed  with  minever, 
with  a  collar  of  ermine.  His  girdle  is  a  wide  band  of  fine  gold 
fastened  with  a  sparkling  clasp  of  precious  stones.  With  the 
rod  of  pine  which  he  holds  in  his  hand  he  strikes  the  table 
sharply  for  silence  ”  ( Garin  le  Loherain). 

The  vassals  assembled  before  him  are  clothed  either  in 
coats  and  surcoats,  or  in  leather  tunics  or  hauberks,  and  con¬ 
verse  pleasantly  with  one  another.  Over  the  hauberk,  with  its 
trellis-work  of  grey  mail,  is  thrown  a  cloak  of  a  brilliant  red 
colour  : 

The  colour  of  the  coat  of  arms 

Shows  us  by  reason  proved 

The  martyrdom  which  God  suffered, 

When  for  us  His  blood  He  spent. 

(Robert  de  Blois,  v.  1111.) 

The  helmets  are  enamelled  in  bright  colours  and  with 
flowered  designs,  and  sometimes  inlaid  with  precious  stones. 
The  lord  takes  his  place  in  an  arm-chair  on  the  dais,  from  which 
he  dominates  the  assembly,  and  his  wife  is  seated  beside  him. 

These  armour-clad  men,  whose  principal  occupation  was  war¬ 
fare,  were  not  wanting  in  culture.  It  would  be  a  mistake 
to  imagine  them  mere  dullards.  Certainly  they  enjoyed  above 
all  things  the  life  of  war.  But  how  many  of  them  were  educated, 
friends  of  literature,  and  collected  in  their  “  palaces  ”  manu¬ 
scripts  containing  the  works  of  their  favourite  authors  ! 

Between  two  battles,  during  their  distant  expeditions,  one 
might  surprise  our  feudal  dignitaries  gathered  together  to 
read  poetical  works  :  chansons  de  geste ,  or  romances,  or  works 
of  history. 


169 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


When  they  rode  in  company,  they  liked  to  sing  to  make 
the  road  seem  shorter  : 

Aallard  and  Guichard  began  a  song  : 

Of  Gascony  were  the  words  and  of  Limousin  the  tune, 

And  Richard  sang  well  the  bass. 

(Les  Quatre  fils  Aymon ,  v.  6599.) 

The  feudal  lords  are  to  take  a  high  place  among  the  poets 
of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  and  several  of  them  will 
shine  in  the  first  rank.  They  write  lays  and  songs,  rondeaus, 
songs  of  spring-time,  sirventes  and  tensons ,  or,  if  they  keep  to 
prose,  it  will  be,  as  with  Villehardouin  and  Joinville,  to  range 
themselves  among  our  most  picturesque  historians.  William 
VII,  Count  of  Poitiers  and  Duke  of  Aquitaine,  is  the  earliest 
of  our  troubadours  (he  flourished  from  1087  to  1127).  After 
him  comes  Raimbaud  d’Orange,  the  Viscount  Bertrand  de 
Born,  and  Jaufre  Rudel,  Lord  of  Blaye.  In  the  family  of  the 
lords  of  Uisel,  in  Limousin,  there  is  quite  a  blossoming  of 
musicians  and  poets.  4 4  Guy  d’Uisel,”  his  biographer  tells  us, 
44  was  a  noble  lord  of  a  castle.  One  of  his  four  brothers  was 
called  Elie,  and  all  four  were  troubadours.  Guy  made  good 
songs,  Elie  good  tensons  (a  kind  of  jeux  'partis ),  Eble  mauvaises , 
and  as  to  Pierre,  he  sang  what  the  others  composed.”  For  the 
rest,  the  list  of  known  troubadours,  which  contains  about 
four  hundred  names  for  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries, 
includes  five  kings,  six  counts,  five  marquises,  five  viscounts, 
and  a  great  number  of  rich  barons  and  valiant  knights. 

A  song  sweet  to  hear 
And  pleasant  to  listen  to 
As  a  knight  I  shall  make  .  .  . 

says  the  noble  Count  Raoul  of  Soissons. 

In  the  lofty  keeps  of  France  the  language  of  oïl  found,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  no  fewer  poets  than  the  language  of  oc  to  the 
south  of  the  Loire.  We  may  mention  Amauri  de  Craon,  Roger 
d’Andely,  Thibaud  de  Blaison,  Bouchart  de  Montmorency, 
Charles  of  Anjou,  King  of  Sicily,  Peter  Mauclerc,  Duke  of 
Brittany,  the  Castellan  of  Coucy,  the  Count  of  La  Marche, 
Guillebert  de  Berneville,  Geoffrey  de  Châtillon,  Raoul  de  Boves, 
Perrin  d’Angicourt,  and  Richard  Cœur  de  Lion,  Duke  of  Nor¬ 
mandy  and  King  of  England.  It  was  among  the  high  feudal 
170 


THE  TWELFTH  CENTURY 


nobility  that  lyric  poetry  took  its  rise  and  from  them  it  spread 
to  the  middle  class.  The  powerful  Duke  Henry  III.  of  Brabant, 
one  of  the  most  magnificent  princes  of  his  century,  a  good  poet 
and  the  author  of  some  charming  songs — of  which  he  composed, 
like  most  of  the  poets  of  the  time,  both  words  and  music — gives 
us  a  picture  of  himself,  seeking  for  rhymes  while  riding  in  war 
gear  : 

In  the  morning  I  mounted 
On  my  ambling  palfrey, 

And  the  desire  had  seized  me 
To  make  a  new  poem. 

Luke  de  la  Barre-sur-Ouche,  while  fighting  against  the  King 
of  England,  wrote  of  him  in  some  poetry  which  was  much 
applauded.  44  He  raised  a  laugh  at  my  expense,”  says  Henry  I, 
who  although  he  was  called  44  Beauclerc  ”  was  not  fond  of 
jokes.  In  the  fight  of  Bourg-Théroulde,  Luke  de  la  Barre  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  English  King,  who,  in  spite  of  the  protests 
of  the  Count  of  Flanders,  ordered  that  his  eyes  should  be  put 
out.  The  good  monk,  Ordericus  Vitalis,  judges  that  this  was 
just.  On  hearing  the  sentence  of  his  conqueror,  Luke  de  la 
Barre  dashed  out  his  brains  against  a  wall.  Jean  de  Brienne, 
who  is  to  die  in  1237  on  the  throne  of  Constantinople,  composes 
pastorals.  Count  Thibaud  of  Champagne,  the  King  of  Navarre, 
will  be  the  best  poet  of  his  time,  the  one  whose  work  will  be 
the  most  delicately  finished.  A  poet,  said  Thibaud,  ought  only 
to  have  recourse  to  nightingales,  flowers,  and  stars  in  the  last 
extremity  ! 

Leaves  and  flowers  are  worthless  in  poetry. 

As  for  the  rôle  of  the  ladv  of  the  castle,  it  seems  to  have 

•/  * 

been  as  important  as  that  of  the  baron. 

The  poets  of  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries  have  sketched 
her  ideal  in  the  Chançun  de  Guillaume  and  in  Aliscans,  in 
the  person  of  Guibourc,  the  wife  of  Count  William  of  the 
Crooked  Nose.  She  has  her  husband’s  valour.  She  restores 
his  courage  when  he  is  about  to  waver,  and  she  is  the  first  to  send 
him  forth  to  battle.  And  the  author  of  Aliscans  traces  for  us 
here  scenes  of  an  epic  beauty  and  grandeur. 

During  the  baron’s  absence  she  presides  over  the  castle 
and  rules  the  fief.  At  all  times  she  governs  the  seigniorial 

171 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


household  as  a  good  and  active  housekeeper.  It  is  she  who, 
with  maternal  solicitude,  “  nourishes  ”  the  youths,  the  sons 
of  her  husband’s  vassals,  who  are,  according  to  custom,  brought 
up  in  the  castle.  The  young  Guy  recalls  her  care,  on  the 
field  of  battle,  at  the  moment  when,  mortally  wounded  by  the 
Saracens,  he  is  about  to  die  : 

Clear  was  the  day  and  fair  was  the  morn. 

The  sun  is  shining,  the  arms  sparkle. 

The  rays  strike  on  the  shield  of  Lord  Guy. 

Softly  his  eyes  are  weeping. 

William  sees  him,  and  asks, 

“  What  can  it  be,  fair  nephew,  Sir  Guy  ?  ” 

The  youth  replies  :  “To  my  sorrow  I  see 
Guibourc  who  nourished  me  so  tenderly, 

Who  gave  me  to  eat  so  early. 

Now  is  the  hour  at  which  she  used  to  offer  it. 

Now  I  am  so  hungry,  already  I  die, 

I  cannot  move  or  lift  my  weapons, 

Wield  my  lance  or  mount  Balzan  [his  horse], 

Nor  help  myself,  nor  another  injure, 

But  to-day  I  die  ;  this  is  sorrow  and  loss  ; 

God  !  what  sorrow  shall  my  friends  have  ! 

For  I  am  so  hungry  I  am  going  mad. 

Would  that  I  had  my  lady  to  serve  me.” 

( Chançun  de  Guillelme ,  v.  1733.) 

The  young  maidens,  whom  the  châtelaine  has  also 
“  nourished  ”  in  the  castle,  she  will  marry  to  her  husband’s 
vassals,  among  whom  he  will  distribute  lands.  Count  William 
has  departed  to  the  war  against  the  Saracens.  To  those  of  the 
knights  who  have  remained  in  the  fief  and  whom  she  is  sending 
to  join  her  husband,  Guibourc  speaks  thus  : 

“  And  who  would  not  take  lands  without  a  wife, 

I  have  still  a  hundred  and  sixty  maidens, 

Daughters  of  kings,  there  are  none  fairer  under  heaven, 

I  have  nourished  them  by  the  grace  of  William, 

They  embroider  for  me  golden  tissues  and  stuffs  in  wheeled  designs, 
Let  him  come  with  me  and  choose  the  fairest  : 

I  will  give  the  wife  ;  my  lord  shall  give  the  land, 

It  will  be  as  good  as  payment  could  be.” 

One  hastened  to  choose  the  fairest 
— On  Thursday  evening — [the  refrain  of  the  song] 

Who  afterwards  at  Larchamp  lost  his  head. 

( Chançun  de  Guillelme ,  v.  1392.) 


172 


THE  TWELFTH  CENTURY 


For  the  châtelaine  is  also  the  mother  of  a  family  who  sees 
to  the  education  of  the  young  girls  gathered  together  in  the 
castle,  as  the  lord  does  for  the  youths.  The  distaff  and  the 
needle  are  held  in  honour  among  them.  They  busy  themselves, 
under  the  direction  of  the  châtelaine,  with  embroideries  in  gold 
and  silken  thread,  and  in  dyeing  materials. 

These  young  girls  took  hardly  any  part  in  the  gatherings  of 
the  men.  When  guests  entered,  they  left  the  room.  Only  on 
feast-days  they  joined  the  assembly,  where  their  grace  and 
youthful  array  won  admiration.  They  passed  their  days  in 
the  “  Maidens’  Chamber  ”  ( la  Chambre  des  Pucelles )  :  great 
households  seething  with  life,  in  which  all  is  action,  colour, 
and  movement,  and  over  which  the  châtelaine  reigns  supreme. 

Just  as  the  knight-bachelor  was  taught  to  ride  and  tilt,  so 
the  young  maiden  learned  in  the  pale  light  of  the  deep  windows 
to  do  “  beautiful  needlework.” 

A  knight  equipped  for  battle  will  not  hesitate  to  offer  his 
beloved  a  needlecase,  knowing  beforehand  that  the  gift  will 
please  her.  There  is  found  still  to-day,  sculptured  on  the 
rough  grey  stone  which  covers  the  grave  of  a  feudal  châtelaine, 
in  homage  to  her  memory,  a  pair  of  scissors. 

So  the  ladies  of  the  castle  in  the  twelfth  century  are  clever 
at  handling  the  spindle  and  the  use  of  the  needle.  Their 
graceful  industry  produced  beautiful  alms-purses,  helmet 
lacings,  capes  woven  of  silk  and  gold,  the  altar-cloths  of  the 
monasteries,  while  they  sang  to  amuse  themselves  : 

All  tunes  Saracen, 

Songs  of  Gascony  and  France, 

Lays  of  Lorraine  and  Brittany.  .  .  . 

(Le  roman  de  Galerent,  v.  1170.) 

Here  is  an  example  of  these  songs,  which  became  cele¬ 
brated  under  the  name  of  “  sewing-songs  ”  ( chansons  de  toile), 
because  ladies  and  maidens  sang  them  while  sewing,  and  be¬ 
cause  nearly  always  one  finds  in  them  a  woman  or  young  girl 
occupied  with  her  needle  : 

The  Song  of  Fair  Yolande 
(Chanson  de  toile) 

Fair  Yolande  in  a  chamber  still, 

On  her  knee  some  stuffs  unfolds, 


173 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Sews  with  a  thread  of  gold  and  one  of  silk. 

Her  stern  mother  chides  her  ; 

44  I  chide  you  for  it, 

Fair  Yolande.” 

“  Fair  Yolande,  I  chide  you, 

You  are  my  daughter,  do  your  duty.” 

44  My  lady  mother,  what  is  it  for  ?  ” 

“  I  will  tell  you,  by  my  faith  ; 

I  chide  you  for  it, 

Fair  Yolande.” 

44  Mother,  for  what  do  you  chide  me  ? 

Is  it  for  sewing  or  cutting, 

Or  spinning  or  brushing, 

Or  is  it  for  sleeping  too  much  ?  ” 

“  I  chide  you  for  it, 

Fair  Yolande.” 

44  It  is  not  for  sewing  nor  for  cutting, 

Nor  for  spinning  nor  for  brushing, 

Nor  is  it  for  too  much  sleeping, 

But  for  speaking  too  much  to  the  knight  ! 

I  chide  you  for  it, 

Fair  Yolande.” 

They  learn  also  to  tend  the  wounds  received  by  the  knights 
in  war  or  tournament  ;  to  unlace  their  helmets,  to  remove  their 
hauberks.  They  wash  away  the  blood,  and  the  dust  which 
covers  them.  They  dress  the  wound  with  bandages  of  white 
linen. 

The  day,  says  a  lady,  passes  in  the  castle  : 

...  in  reading  my  psalter, 

And  working  in  gold  and  silk, 

Cyrus  of  Thebes  or  of  Troy  (romances), 

And  playing  songs  on  my  harp, 

And  playing  at  chess  with  some  one, 

Or  feeding  my  falcon  from  my  hand. 

(Le  roman  de  Galerent,  v.  3881.) 

The  chroniclers  have  left  us  portraits  of  these  feudal  châte¬ 
laines  which  differ  so  much  that  it  would  be  impossible  to 
derive  from  them  any  common  features.  One,  like  Blanche 
of  Navarre,  the  guardian  of  her  young  son,  Thibaud  IV,  puts 
herself  at  the  head  of  a  military  expedition,  in  which  she  dis¬ 
plays  the  qualities,  but  also  the  roughness,  of  a  man.  Aubarède, 
174 


THE  TWELFTH  CENTURY 


the  châtelaine  of  Pithiviers,  has  the  head  of  the  architect  who 
has  built  her  castle  cut  off,  so  that  he  may  not  reveal  the  secrets 
of  the  place  or  be  able  to  build  any  similar  keeps  in  the  neigh¬ 
bourhood.  Then  she  expels  her  own  husband  from  the  castle  ; 
but  he  returns  before  long  in  force  and  kills  her  with  a  poignard. 
Mabel,  the  wife  of  Count  Roger  of  Montgomery,  reduced  the 
noblemen  of  her  own  fief  to  beggary  until  they  avenged  them¬ 
selves  by  cutting  her  head  off.  The  Countess  Adelaide  of  Soissons 
had  her  brother  poisoned  so  as  to  have  the  full  enjoyment  of  his 
fief  ;  she  had  the  eyes  of  her  victims  put  out  and  their  tongues 
cut  off.  More  dreadful  still  is  the  châtelaine  of  Cahuzac,  who 
takes  part  in  the  tortures  which  her  husband  inflicts  on  poor 
wretches  :  cutting  off  hands  and  feet,  putting  out  their  eyes  ; 
she  took  a  horrible  pleasure  in  having  the  breasts  of  defenceless 
women  cut  off  or  in  having  their  nails  torn  off  so  that  they 
could  not  earn  their  bread. 

A  sufficiently  large  number  of  these  examples  might  be 
cited,  but  if  the  writers  of  the  time  have  preserved  them  for  us 
it  is  because  they  were  exceptional,  and  on  the  other  hand,  do 
not  the  same  chroniclers  give  us  to  balance  against  them,  the 
names  of  women  whose  lives  have  been  all  kindness,  gentleness, 
beneficence,  and  piety  ?  Of  more  than  one  châtelaine  of  the 
twelfth  century,  it  may  be  said,  with  the  author  of  Girart  de 
Roussillo?i  : 

To  give,  this  is  her  towers  and  battlements. 

To  begin  with,  there  is  Guibert  de  Nogent’s  own  mother,  a 
saintly  creature,  whose  whole  life  was  filled  with  beneficence. 

We  read  in  the  chronicle  of  Lambert  d’Ardres  :  44  The  wife 
of  Arnold  the  Red  was  a  young  lady  pleasing  to  God  ;  she  was 
gentle  and  simple,  diligent,  pious,  and  God-fearing.  She  was 
to  be  seen  amusing  herself  with  her  young  maidens  in  children’s 
games,  singing  choruses,  dancing  in  rings,  even  joining  them 
in  playing  with  dolls.  During  the  great  heat  of  summer,  in  the 
innocence  of  her  free  heart,  she  would  go  and  bathe  in  the  lake 
clothed  only  in  her  chemise,  not  so  much  for  the  purpose  of 
washing  as  for  refreshment  and  exercise.  She  would  swim 
rapidly  in  graceful  curves,  in  the  smooth  water,  now  lying  on 
her  back  to  disappear,  a  moment  later  under  the  rippling  water, 
appearing  again  on  the  surface  whiter  than  snow,  whiter  than 

175 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


her  silky  chemise  which  was  dazzlingly  white  ;  and  this  in  the 
presence  not  only  of  the  maidens  of  her  suite  but  of  the  young 
men  and  knights.  In  this  and  in  a  thousand  other  ways  she 
showed  the  limpid  goodness  of  her  character,  the  undisturbed 
purity  of  her  habits,  which  made  her  beloved  by  her  husband 
and  the  knights  of  the  castellany  and  by  all  the  people.” 

And  no  doubt  she  is  an  exception  among  the  châtelaines  of 
the  twelfth  century,  just  as  the  cruel  viragos  we  mentioned 
above  were  exceptional  figures. 

The  education  which  the  feudal  lords  gave  their  sons  was 
exceedingly  severe. 


“  The  serfs,”  we  read  in  a  sermon  of  the 

Tournaments  ^me>  41  sP°il  their  children  when  they  are  small  ; 

they  give  them  fine  clothes  to  wear,  and  when  they 
are  grown  up  they  send  them  to  the  plough.  The  nobles,  on  the 
contrary,  begin  by  trampling  on  their  sons  ;  they  make  them  eat 
in  the  kitchen  with  the  serving-men,  and  then  when  they  are 
grown  up  they  4  honour  ’  them.”  Boys  take  pleasure  in  horse- 
riding,  hunting,  and  fencing  bouts.  While  employed  in  the 
service  of  the  suzerain  who  44  nourishes  ”  them,  the  young  men 
bear  their  shields  ;  they  learn  to  arm  themselves  for  the  battle 
or  the  tournament. 

The  tournament  was  the  repetition,  often  cruel  and  bloody, 
of  the  methods  of  battle.  44  A  knight  must,”  says  Roger  de 
Hoveden,  in  speaking  of  these  violent  exercises,  44  have  seen 
his  blood  flow,  had  his  teeth  broken  by  blows  of  the  fist,  been 
thrown  to  earth  with  the  full  weight  of  his  antagonist  on  top 
of  him,  been  twenty  times  unhorsed  and  twenty  times  recovered 
from  his  falls,  and  yet  must  prove  more  implacable  than  ever  in 
battle.” 

A  very  false  idea  prevails  of  these  tournaments,  at  least 
in  the  heroic  period.  We  picture  knights  in  shining  armour, 
with  burnished  and  brightly  coloured  shields,  with  fancifully 
crested  helmets  on  their  heads,  mounted  on  horses  caparisoned 
in  gold,  jousting  courteously  within  the  white  lists,  in  the 
presence  of  beautiful  ladies  seated  on  a  dais  with  armorial 
bearings. 

In  the  twelfth  century  tournaments  were  real  wars  which 
developed  not  only  in  the  precise  place  appointed  for  the  meet- 


176 


THE  TWELFTH  CENTURY 


ing,  but  encroached  on  the  neighbouring  country.  There  is 
no  document  known  which  at  this  period  forbids  the  use  of 
sharps  swords  or  pointed  lances  in  the  tournament.  How¬ 
ever,  the  object  of  the  combatants,  protected  by  their  iron 
carapaces,  was  not  to  kill.  But  they  mishandled  each  other 
severely,  greedy  to  get  possession  of  each  other’s  horses  and 
harness,  trying  to  take  prisoners  for  the  sake  of  ransom,  as  in 
real  battles. 

44  The  Normans  and  English,”  we  read  in  the  biography  of 
William  the  Marshall,  44  were  grouped  for  a  tournament 
against  the  French.  .  .  .  Beforehand,  in  their  houses,  the 
French  had  apportioned  the  harness  and  gold  of  the  English  ; 
but  they  had  not  got  them  yet.” 

The  lords  appeared  there  with  their  serving-men  and 
sergeants  who  helped  them  in  the  course  of  the  fight,  without 
however  being  of  very  much  use,  for  they  ran  away  at  the  first 
sign  of  danger,  knowing  that  the  knights  on  the  other  side 
would  not  hesitate  to  massacre  them. 

Tournaments  appear  to  have  been  distinguished  in  the 
thirteenth  century  from  real  wars  only  by  the  following  points  : 

1.  Tournaments  had  the  lists ,  a  part  of  the  ground 
barricaded  off,  where  the  knights  could  rest,  have  their  wounds 
dressed,  get  their  weapons  mended  or  change  them,  or  indeed 
take  refuge  when  they  felt  themselves  too  hardly  pressed. 
It  was  neutral  ground. 

2.  The  place  of  the  encounter  had  been  fixed  beforehand. 

3.  During  the  intervals  of  fighting  the  knights  of  both  sides 
paid  reciprocal  visits  of  courtesy. 

4.  Finally,  at  the  end  of  the  tournament  the  chief  person¬ 
ages  engaged  in  the  struggle  met  together  to  award  prizes  to 
those  who  had  distinguished  themselves  most. 

Real  armies  were  sometimes  seen  contesting  in  these  jousts. 
There  were  three  thousand  men  at  the  tournament  of  Lagny 
described  by  the  biographer  of  the  Marshall.  The  contestants 
were  seen  on  horseback  advancing  with  difficulty  through  the 
vineyards. 

The  biographer  of  the  Marshall  speaks  of  a  great  tournament 
which  took  place  somewhere  between  1176  and  1180  in  the 
district  round  Dreux.  On  one  side  were  the  knights  of  France, 

M  177 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

Flanders,  Brie,  and  Champagne.  On  the  other  were  the 
Normans,  Bretons,  English,  the  men  of  Mantes,  the  Anjevins 
and  Poitevins.  The  French  and  their  adherents  charged  in 
great  disorder.  They  broke  in  the  attack,  and  when  Henry 
the  Young,  the  son  of  the  Plantagenet  Henry  II,  and  William 
the  Marshall  arrived  with  their  contingents  they  were  already 
routed. 

The  pursuit  was  so  lively  that  the  King  (Henry  the  Young) 
remained  behind  alone  with  the  Marshall.  They  found  in  a 
street  Simon  de  Neauphle,  who  barred  their  passage  with  three 
hundred  foot  sergeants  armed  with  bows,  picks,  and  hatchets. 

44  We  cannot  pass  here,”  said  the  King,  44  and  we  cannot 
think  of  turning  back.” 

44  We  must  just  run  over  them,”  replied  the  Marshall. 

The  sergeants,  seeing  them  coming,  opened  ranks,  not 
daring  to  await  them,  and  the  Marshall  took  my  lord  Simon 
by  the  bridle.  He  led  him  along,  the  King  following  a  little 
way  behind.  The  Marshall  did  not  look  behind.  A  water¬ 
spout  jutted  out  across  their  road,  and  the  Lord  of  Neauphle 
got  caught  on  it  and  was  left  hanging.  The  King  saw,  but 
said  nothing.  The  Marshall  arrived  at  the  dépôt,  still  holding 
in  leash  the  French  lord’s  horse.  44  Take  this  knight,”  he  said 
to  a  squire. — 44  Which  knight  ?  ”  said  the  King. — 44  Which 
knight  ?  Why,  the  one  I  am  leading.” — 44  But  you  haven’t 
one.” — 44  Where  is  he  then  ?  ” — 44  He  is  hanging  on  a  water¬ 
spout.” 

Such  is  an  episode  of  the  tournament. 

Following  on  this  affair,  in  which  the  Marshall  had  distin¬ 
guished  himself,  the  Count  of  Flanders  sent  him,  as  a  mark  of 
homage,  a  magnificent  pike. 

44  Two  knights  were  told  off  to  present  it  to  him.  They 
set  out,  a  squire  going  in  front  of  them  with  the  pike.  They 
found  William  at  the  forge  with  his  head  on  the  anvil,  while 
the  smith,  with  the  help  of  his  pincers  and  hammers,  was  forcing 
away  his  helmet,  warped  and  battered  down  on  his  neck.” 

William  the  Marshall  was  connected  with  another  knight, 
Roger  de  Gaugi.  44  He  was  an  enterprising  and  resourceful 
person,  but  a  little  too  keen  on  profit.”  His  prowess  had 
obtained  him  admittance  into  the  household  of  the  King  of 
178 


THE  TWELFTH  CENTURY 


England.  Gaugi  knew  of  the  magnificent  gains  which  the 
Marshall  earned  in  the  tournaments. 

Greed  seizes  and  kindles 

His  heart  ;  he  speaks  and  tells 

The  Marshall  he  will  bear  him  company. 

(v.  3394.) 

For  two  years  the  Marshall  and  Gaugi  frequented  the  tourna¬ 
ments,  sweeping  up  horses,  harness,  money.  “  I  am  not  talking 
in  the  air,”  says  our  biographer;  “I  base  my  statements  on 
the  accounts  of  the  clerks.  The  accounts  of  Wigain,  the  clerk 
of  the  kitchen,  and  others  absolutely  establish  that  between 
Pentecost  and  Lent  (1180)  they  took  a  hundred  and  three 
knights,  without  mentioning  the  horses  and  equipments  which 
the  accountants  did  not  enter.” 

Another  tournament  took  place  later  at  the  same  spot. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  action  the  French  had  the  advantage, 
but  on  the  arrival  of  the  English  prince,  Henry  the  Young, 
and  his  troops,  they  were  routed.  Some  of  them  took  refuge 
on  a  fortified  hill  defended  by  a  “  hericon,”  i.e.  a  palisade, 
itself  surrounded  by  a  moat.  They  had  tied  their  horses  to 
the  palisade.  “  William  the  Marshall  performed  a  great  feat. 
He  dismounted  and  gave  his  horse  into  safe  keeping,  climbed 
up  to  the  fort,  took  two  horses  and  drove  them  down  into 
the  moat  at  the  foot  of  the  rampart,  then  up  the  opposite 
bank.”  But  two  French  knights  came  up  and,  seeing  him 
worn  out,  took  the  two  horses  from  him. 

“  The  Marshall,  again  in  the  saddle,  rode  towards  a  barn 
in  which  several  knights  (French)  were  besieged  by  a  superior 
number  of  their  enemies.”  Seeing  him  coming,  the  besieged, 
who  knew  him,  cried  out  :  4  There  are  fifteen  of  us,  knights  ; 
take  us  as  your  prisoners.  We  prefer,  as  we  are  reduced  to 
this  point,  to  belong  to  you  rather  than  to  those  who  are 
besieging  us.’  ” 

Tournaments  had  their  origin  in  France,  and  it  was  there 
that  they  had  all  their  brilliance.  In  spite  of  his  partiality 
for  everything  from  beyond  the  Channel,  the  biographer  of 
the  Marshall  acknowledges  this. 

We  have  just  seen  William  the  Marshall  in  partnership 
with  a  sort  of  ruffian  for  the  sake  of  the  profits  to  be  won  from 

179 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


these  warlike  jousts.  In  this  way  there  came  to  be  formed  a 
class  of  professional  fighters  in  tournaments,  just  as  we  see 
formed  to-day  in  many  sports.  They  went  from  tournament 
to  tournament,  realizing  a  fine  profit  in  horses,  plate,  and  often 
in  good,  hard  cash.  Such  a  one  was  the  good  knight,  who 
had  neither  vine  nor  land,  described  with  such  picturesque 
effect  in  one  of  our  old  fables  ;  he  had  no  means  of  livelihood 
except  what  he  won  by  frequenting  tournaments,  and  found 
himself  reduced  to  a  lamentable  state  of  distress,  when,  at  the 
instigation  of  the  Church,  this  violent  form  of  sport  was 
momentarily  suspended. 

Sources. — La  chançun  de  Guillelme ,  ed.  Herm.  Suchier,  Bibliotheca 
Normannica ,  1911  ;  Garin  le  Loherain ,  translated  by  P.  Paris,  1862  ; 
Lamberti  Ardensi  Chronicon  Ghisnense  et  Ar dense,  ed.  Godefroy  Menil- 
glaise,  1855  ;  Guibert  de  Nogent,  De  vita  sua ,  ed.  Bourgin,  1907  ;  Mont- 
aiglon-Raynaud,  Recueil  des  fabliaux ,  1879-90,  6  vols.  ;  L'histoire  de 
Guillaume  le  Maréchal,  ed.  P.  Meyer,  1891-1901,  3  vols. 

Historical  Works. — Viollet-le-Duc,  Dictionnaire  de  V architecture  and 
Dictionnaire  du  mobilier ,  ed.  cit.  ;  Leopold  Delisle,  “  De  l’instruction 
littéraire  de  la  noblesse  française  au  Moyen  Age,”  in  the  Journal  de  l'in¬ 
struction  publique ,  June,  1855  ;  B.  Hauréau,  Notices  et  extraits  de  quelques 
MSS  latins  de  la  Bibliothèque  Nationale,  1890-92,  6  vols.  ;  Huberti,  Studien 
zur  Rechtsgesch.  des  Gottes  frieden  und  Landfrieden,  1892  ;  Sémichon, 
Paix  et  trêve  de  Dieu  ;  La  Corne  Ste.-Palaye,  Mémoires  sur  l'ancienne 
chevalerie,  1781  ;  R.  Rosières,  Hist,  de  la  Société  française  au  Moyen  Age , 
1884,  2  vols.  ;  Ch.  V.  Langlois,  La  Société  française  au  XIII e  Siècle,  2nd  ed., 
1904  ;  Ch.  V.  Langlois,  La  Vie  en  France  au  Moyen  Age ,  according  to 
some  moralists,  1908  ;  E.  Rust,  Die  Erziehung  des  Ritters  in  der  Altfran- 
zbsischen  Epik,  1888  ;  Alvin  Schultz,  Das  Hôfische  Leben  zur  Zeit  der 
Minnesinger ,  2nd  ed.,  1889,  2  vols.  ;  Thomas  Wright,  A  History  of  Domestic 
Manners  and  Sentiments  during  the  Middle  Ages,  1862  ;  L.  Gautier,  La 
Chevalerie,  3rd  ed.,  1895. 


180 


CHAPTER  IX 


THE  MINSTRELS 

Trouvères  and  minstrels.  The  French  language  comes  from 
Latin.  The  talents  of  the  minstrels.  Their  manuscripts.  How 
the  minstrels  were  paid.  Their  poverty.  Colin  Muset  and 
Rutebeuf.  The  minstrels  as  authors  of  fame.  Fine  words  and 
splendid  stories.  The  troubadours. 

IN  the  life  of  the  castle  much  pleasure  was  derived  from 
minstrels.  Their  name  ( Jongleurs )  comes  from  the 
Latin  jocular  es  or  joculatores.  We  must  not  confuse 
them  with  the  poets  (trouvères)  :  the  “  trouveurs,”  as  they 
were  called  in  the  twelfth  century.  The  minstrel  gives  to  the 
public  the  work  composed  by  the  poets.  The  troubadours 
were  the  trouvères  of  the  South,  those  who  wrote  in  the 
language  of  oc  ( oc  =  oui),  and  their  name  has  the  same  origin  : 
it  comes  from  trobar ,  to  find.  The  trouvères  used  the  language 
of  oïl  (oïl  =  oui),  i.e.  French  proper.  The  line  of  demarcation 
starts  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Garonne  at  its  junction  with 
the  Dordogne,  from  which  it  turns  northwards.  Angoulême 
is  still  in  “  langue  d’oïl  ”  ;  Limoges,  Guéret,  Montluçon  are 
in  “  langue  d’oc  ”  ;  thence  the  dividing  line  bends  towards 
Lyons  through  Roanne  and  St.  Etienne. 

Provençal  was  divided  into  dialects  just  as  Northern  French 
was.  There  was  Provençal  proper,  the  dialect  of  Languedoc, 
of  Auvergne,  of  Limoges,  and  to  the  east  in  Savoy  and 
Dauphiny,  an  idiom  finely  flavoured  with  its  suggestion  of 
Latinity  peculiarly  well  preserved.  It  has  been  called  Franco- 
Provençal.  Of  these  dialects  that  of  Limoges  became  the 
language  of  literature,  just  as  did,  in  the  langue  d'oïl,  the  speech 
of  the  Ile-de-France.  The  langue  d'oïl  and  the  langue  d'oc  are 
equally  derived  from  Latin.  French  is,  like  Provençal,  Latin 

181 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


which  has  insensibly  changed.  In  the  eleventh  century 
Adhémar  de  Chabannes  still  speaks  of  French  as  44  Latin.” 

44  Rollo  of  Normandy  being  dead,  his  son  William  succeeded 
him.  He  had  been  baptized.  The  Normans  adopted  the 
faith  of  Christ  and,  forgetting  their  barbarous  tongue,  they 
took  the  habit  of  speaking  Latin.”  Moreover,  if  we  take  the 
oldest  example  of  our  language,  the  famous  oath  taken  at 
Strasburg  in  841  by  Louis,  the  son  of  Louis  the  Debonnair, 
to  his  brother  Charles  the  Bald,  it  is  impossible  to  say  whether 
this  language  is  still  Latin  or  if  it  has  already  become  French  : 
44  Pro  Deo  amur  et  pro  Christian  poblo  et  nostro  commun 
salvament  d’ist  di  en  avant,  in  quant  Deus  savir  et  podir,  me 
dunat,  si  salvarai  eo  cist  meon  fradre  Karlo  et  in  adiudha  et 
in  cadhuna  cosa  si  cum  om  per  dreit  son  fradre  salvar  dist.” 
(“  For  the  love  of  God  and  before  all  Christian  people  and  for 
our  common  salvation,  from  this  day  forward,  in  so  far  as  God 
may  grant  me  knowledge  and  power,  I  will  aid  my  brother 
Charles  by  assistance  and  in  all  things  as  by  right  a  brother 
should.”) 

No  mention  of  minstrels  is  found  before  the  eleventh  century, 
but  from  the  reign  of  Robert  the  Pious  (the  beginning  of  the 
eleventh  century)  one  finds  them  mingling  with  various  classes 
of  society. 

The  French  minstrels  soon  took  the  lead  of  the  literary 
movement  in  Europe. 

They  come  fully  into  view  at  the  time  when  the  epic  is 
ceasing  to  be  merely  local  and  to  belong  strictly  to  the  family, 
at  the  period  which  sees  it  uprooted  to  be  carried  from  place 
to  place.  The  minstrels  made  them  heard  to  the  strains  of 
the  Irish  harp,  from  castle  to  castle,  from  one  market  to  another, 
from  town  to  town. 

The  minstrels  have  been  defined  as  :  44  Those  who  make  a 
profession  of  amusing  the  people  ”  ;  for  their  talents  were 
varied.  A  poet  says  to  a  young  man  who  intends  to  become 
a  minstrel  :  “You  must  know  how  to  4  trouver  5  (compose 
poems),  to  jump  high,  to  speak  easily,  and  propose  competitions. 
You  must  know  how  to  play  the  tambourine,  the  castanets, 
and  the  symphony  (a  musical  instrument)  ...  ;  how  to  throw 
and  catch  apples  with  two  knives,  the  songs  of  birds  and 
182 


THE  MINSTRELS 


marionettes.  You  must  know  how  to  play  the  guitar  and  the 
mandoline,  and  to  jump  through  hoops.  You  will  have  a 
red  beard,  and  make  a  dog  jump  over  a  stick  and  stand  on  two 
paws.”  In  the  picturesque  adornments  of  the  margins  of 
thirteenth- century  manuscripts  one  may  still  see  the  minstrels 
with  their  red  beards  and  wigs. 

I  will  tell  you  what  I  can  do, 

says  the  minstrel  in  a  fable  to  one  of  his  companions  : 

I  am  a  minstrel  of  the  viol, 

I  know  the  musette  and  the  flute, 

And  the  harpe  and  chifonie, 

The  gigue  and  armonie, 

And  the  salteire  and  the  rote  ; 

I  know  well  how  to  sing  a  tune  ; 

(The  harpe,  chifonie,  gigue,  salteire,  and  rote  were  musical 
instruments.) 

Well  I  know  how  to  use  the  juggler’s  cup, 

And  make  the  snail  appear 
Alive  and  leaping  on  the  table  ; 

(Compare  the  song  of  the  children  to  make  the  snail  come 
44  alive  and  leaping  on  the  table  ”  :  44  Mas  !  Mas  !  Mas  !  Show 
me  thy  horns  !  ”) 

And  I  know  many  fine  table  tricks, 

And  from  prestidigitations  and  magic 
Well  I  know  how  to  make  an  enchantment. 

•  •••••• 

And  the  knowledge  and  chants  of  the  clergy, 

And  the  speech  of  chivalry, 

And  to  warn  good  knights 
And  decipher  their  arms. 

And  this  same  minstrel  will  know  the  heroic  gestes  of 
Roland  and  Guillaume ,  of  Rainoart,  Garin ,  Vivien ,  and  Ogier. 
He  will  be  the  poetic  echo  of  the  most  touching  idylls,  Perceval, 
Tristan  et  Iseut,  Flore  et  Blancheflor  : 

I  know  well  how  to  serve  a  knight, 

And  of  fine  tales  the  whole  sum  ; 

I  know  stories,  I  know  fables, 

I  can  tell  fine  new  tales. 

183 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Songs  with  refrains,  old  and  new, 

Poems  satirical  and  pastorals. 

•  •••••• 

I  can  sing  at  your  desire 
Of  King  Pepin  and  Saint  Denis, 

Of  the  men  of  Lorraine  the  whole  history, 

I  know  their  meaning  and  have  them  by  heart — 

Of  Charlemagne  and  Roland 
And  the  fight  of  Oliver. 

I  know  of  Ogier,  I  know  of  Ay  mon, 

And  of  Girard  of  Roxilion, 

And  I  know  of  King  Louis 
And  of  Buevon  de  Conmarchis. 

•  •••••• 

I  can  give  counsels  of  love 
And  make  crowns  of  flowerets, 

And  love  gifts, 

And  speak  well  of  gracious  service 
To  those  who  are  in  love.  .  .  . 

(Fabliau  des  deux  bordeors,  v.  283.) 

Others  know  how  to  imitate  the  song  of  the  nightingale, 
the  cry  of  the  peacock,  the  humming  of  the  bee,  the  roaring 
of  a  bull.  Aubry  de  Trois  Fontaines  speaks  of  the  prowess 
of  a  minstrel  whom  he  saw  at  Compiègne,  where  the  betrothal 
of  Robert  of  Artois  with  the  daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Brabant 
was  being  celebrated.  He  mounted  a  horse  which  was  walking 
on  a  rope. 

The  author  of  the  Moral  Story  writes  that  the  door  was 
opened  willingly  to 

Those  who  can  twist  their  limbs  strangely, 

Who  all  night  can  sing  songs  with  refrains, 

Who  can  make  the  whole  household  leap  and  dance  ; 

to  those  who  know  how  to  “  make  the  forked  tree  ”  (stand 
head  downwards,  legs  in  the  air)  on  the  high  table  and  can  make 
curious  grimaces. 

Joinville  in  his  turn  writes  :  “  There  came  three  minstrels, 
brothers,  on  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem  ;  they  had  three  trumpets 
with  the  horns  turned  towards  their  faces.  When  they  began 
to  play  their  trumpets  you  would  have  thought  it  was  the  voice 
of  swans  coming  from  the  water,  and  they  produced  the  sweetest 
and  most  gracious  melodies,  a  marvel  to  hear,” 

184 


THE  MINSTRELS 


And  these  same  minstrels — they  were  Armenians — did 
three  wonderful  acrobatic  feats.  A  towel  was  put  under  their 
feet  and,  holding  themselves  rigid,  they  turned  a  complete 
somersault,  their  feet  returning  to  the  towel.  Two  of  them 
turned  their  heads  to  face  behind  them,  and  the  eldest  also, 
and  when  he  turned  it  round  again  he  crossed  himself,  for 
he  was  afraid  of  breaking  his  neck  in  the  act  of  turning.” 

And  these  minstrels  with  their  instruments  accompanied 
the  armies  on  march  and  came  into  the  churches  to  sing  varia¬ 
tions  on  the  Kyrie ,  the  Sandies,  and  the  Agnus  Dei. 

Some  minstrels  were  themselves  poets.  It  is  a  minstrel 
who  writes  the  History  of  the  Holy  War,  and  another  the  Life 
of  St.  Alexius.  The  most  charming  and  the  greatest  of 
thirteenth- century  poets,  Colin  Muset  and  Rutebeuf,  will  both 
be  minstrels. 

Our  merry  fellows  carefully  preserve  the  manuscript  con¬ 
taining  the  text  of  their  gay  science  ;  they  would  guard  the 
privilege  of  their  fine  poems,  or  if  they  part  with  a  copy  to  a 
colleague,  or  a  rival,  it  is  for  a  financial  consideration. 

I  will  tell  you  of  a  song  held  in  great  honour, 

In  the  realm  of  France  none  is  so  much  praised, 

Huon  de  Villeneuve  kept  it  close  guarded  : 

He  would  not  for  it  take  horse  or  harnessed  mule, 

Cloak  with  vair  or  minever,  or  cape  of  fur, 

Nor  of  Parisian  monies  a  measureful  : 

Now  greatly  he  grieves  that  it  is  stolen  from  him. 

( Les  Quatre  fils  Aymon ,  ed.  Castets,  p.  10.) 

Huon  de  Villeneuve  has  made  every  effort  to  keep  the  text 
of  his  song  for  himself  ;  he  has  refused  money  and  horses  for 
it,  a  cloak  trimmed  with  fur  and  a  fur  cape  ;  but,  behold,  it 
has  been  stolen  from  him. 

In  treating  above  of  the  chansons  de  geste  we  saw  that  the 
first  minstrels  had  been  soldiers.  Suger  still,  in  his  life  of 
Louis  VI,  speaks  of  a  brave  knight  who  was  also  a  minstrel, 
and  who  leaves  the  army  of  the  feudal  barons  of  Enguerran 
de  Boves  and  Eble  de  Roucy,  to  range  himself  under  the 
banners  of  the  King.  But  from  the  middle  of  the  twelfth 
century  thare  is  hardly  any  longer  found  any  but  professionals 
who  go  from  district  to  district  on  horseback,  their  luggage  in 

185 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


their  saddle-bags,  their  fiddle  and  bow  strapped  to  their 
shoulders,  seeking  a  livelihood  by  making  heard  everywhere  the 
themes  of  their  epic  poems,  the  lively  refrains  of  their  songs, 
their  songs  with  the  refrain  of  vadu,  and  their  triboudaines . 

“  Like  flies  on  a  sweet  liquid,”  writes  a  thirteenth-century 
orator,  “  one  sees  the  minstrels  flying  to  the  Courts  of  princes.” 
The  author  of  the  Provençal  romance  Flamenca  has  described 
a  wedding  feast  at  which  1500  minstrels  display  the  most 
varied  talent  : 

“  Then  you  could  have  heard  the  sound  of  instruments 
through  the  whole  gamut  of  tones.  .  .  .  One  fiddles  the  song 
of  the  honey-suckle,  another  that  of  Tintagruel  ;  one  sings 
the  faithful  lovers,  another  the  song  made  by  Ivan  ;  one  plays 
the  harp,  another  the  viol  ;  one  the  flute,  another  the  fife  ; 
one  the  gigue,  the  other  the  rote  ;  one  says  the  words  while 
another  accompanies  him  ;  one  works  marionettes,  another 
juggles  with  knives  ;  another  dances  a  cabriole  :  the  buzz  of 
many  voices  fills  the  room.” 

Our  artists  received  for  their  trouble  food  and  lodging, 
clothes  and  money. 

The  author  of  Huon  de  Bordeaux  shows  us  a  minstrel  at 
the  royal  Court.  He  begins  to  play  the  viol.  The  lords  press 
round  him.  In  their  enthusiasm,  one  after  another  they  take 
off  their  cloaks,  which  fall  in  a  heap  round  the  minstrel.  “  We 
have  seen  princes,”  says  Rigord,  “  who  after  having  spent 
twenty  or  thirty  marks  on  splendid  garments  wonderfully 
embroidered,  have  given  them  a  week  later  to  minstrels.” 

After  all,  devoted  as  they  may  be  to  art  and  poetry,  our 
minstrels  have  still  to  live  and  support  their  families.  And 
they  do  not  hesitate  to  say  so  : 

Now  draw  near,  lord,  I  pray  you, 

And  he  who  has  no  money  need  not  sit  down, 

For  those  who  have  it  not  are  not  of  my  company. 

( Baudoin  de  Sebourc,  Chant  v.  v.  19-21.) 

And  what  discontent  when  the  amount  of  the  payment 
does  not  tally  with  the  expectation,  when  the  minstrel  has  not 
received  from  the  baron  at  whose  castle  he  has  displayed  his 
talent,  the  desired  recompense.  The  reception  is  not  the  same 
186 


THE  MINSTRELS 

everywhere.  There  are  wealthy  men  who,  in  return  for  the 
amusement  afforded  them  by  the  minstrels, 

Make  them  depart  often  unshod  : 

•  •  •  •  • 

Giving  them  only  old  clothes, 

And  a  little  of  their  broken  food, 

Throwing  it  as  to  dogs. 

(Fabliau  des  lecheors ,  v.  82.) 

Colin  Muset  expresses  himself  on  this  subject  in  peculiarly 
vivid  terms.  He  is  addressing  a  lord  at  whose  castle  he  sang, 
recited  poems,  and  played  the  violin,  and  who  has  given  him 
a  meagre  pittance. 

Lord  Count,  I  have  fiddled 
Before  you  in  your  house, 

Yet  nothing  have  you  given  me 
Nor  paid  my  fee, 

It  is  shameful — 

By  the  faith  I  owe  to  Our  Lady 
No  longer  will  I  serve  you. 

My  alms-purse  is  ill  furnished, 

My  pouch  ill  filled. 

Sir  Count,  pray  tell  me 
What  you  will  do  for  me. 

Sire,  if  it  please  you, 

Grant  me  a  good  gift 

From  courtesy. 

I  have  great  desire,  do  not  doubt, 

To  return  to  my  family. 

When  I  go  there  with  empty  purse 
My  wife  is  not  merry. 

Why,  she  says,  “  Sir  Needy, 

In  what  land  have  you  been 
That  you  have  earned  nothing  ? 

Have  you  disported  yourself  too  much 
About  the  town  ? 

See  how  your  box  moves  ! 

It  is  well  stuffed  with  air  ! 

Shame  be  to  him 

Who  would  be  of  your  company  !  ” 

But  when  I  come  to  my  house 

And  my  wife  has  seen 

The  bag  well  filled  behind  me. 

And  myself  well  garbed 
In  a  furred  robe  ; 


187 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Know  that  she  throws  down  at  once 
Her  needle,  truthfully, 

She  smiles  at  me  for  kindness, 

Throws  two  arms  round  my  neck. 

My  wife  goes  to  rifle 
My  bag  without  delay  : 

My  serving-man  to  water 
And  care  for  my  horse  ; 

My  servant-maid  to  kill 
Two  capons  to  cook 
In  garlic  sauce  ; 

My  daughter  brings  me  a  comb 
In  her  hand  from  courtesy  : 

Then  am  I  king  in  my  house, 

Very  joyful  and  without  care 
Beyond  what  I  could  tell  you. 

And  the  great  Rutebeuf  harps  on  this  same  theme  but  in 
poignant  terms  : 

Do  not  blame  me  if  I  hesitate 
To  go  back, 

For  I  shall  have  no  welcome  ; 

My  coming  will  not  be  agreeable 
If  nothing  I  bring. 

This  is  what  most  disheartens  me, 

That  I  dare  to  knock  at  my  door 
With  empty  hands. 

At  his  house,  poor  Rutebeuf  finds  his  wife  dissatisfied, 
crabbed,  whining.  The  landlord  comes  for  the  rent,  his 
furniture  is  pledged,  and  now  comes  along  the  hired  nurse 
demanding  money  “  to  feed  the  baby,”  failing  which  she  will 
send  it  back  to  fill  the  house  with  its  yelling. 

Hear  the  heart-rending  cry  which  the  poet  sends  out  to  the 
foot  of  the  royal  throne  : 

I  cough  with  cold  and  with  hunger  gape, 

Through  them  I  die  and  am  finished  with. 

I  am  without  coverlet  or  bed  ; 

Lord,  I  know  not  where  to  go. 

My  sides  feel  the  straw, — 

A  bed  of  straw  is  no  bed, 

And  in  my  bed  there  is  nothing  but  straw.  .  .  . 

Lord,  I  would  have  you  know 
I  have  not  wherewith  to  buy  bread.  .  .  . 


188 


THE  MINSTRELS 

Poverty  has  deprived  him  of  his  friends  : 

I  think  the  wind  has  carried  them  off. 

Love  is  dead  ! 

They  are  friends  whom  a  breeze  carries  off. 

It  blew  before  my  door, 

And  they  are  gone. 

And  he  ends  with  these  admirable  lines  : 

The  hope  of  to-morrow, 

This  is  my  banquet  ! 

Thus,  as  writes  Guillaume  le  Vinier  : 

Sometimes  the  minstrel  is  singing, 

And  he  is  saddest  of  all, 

He  sings  according  to  his  subject 

As  the  most  sorrowful  man  in  the  world  ; 

It  is  not  for  pleasure, 

But  for  need  of  help 

As  a  minstrel  courteous  and  free  ; 

When  he  has  finished  his  song, 

Gently  he  asks  and  prays 
Help  to  live  for  a  while. 

Saint  Louis  gave  money  “  to  poor  minstrels  without  number 
who,  through  old  age  or  sickness,  could  not  work  or  follow  their 
profession  ”  ( Joinville ). 

The  ministrels  frequented  fairs  and  places  of  pilgrimage. 
They  stopped  at  the  entrance  to  the  shrines,  where  they  recited 
their  poems,  often  in  the  open  air,  to  the  crowd,  sometimes 
noisy  and  sometimes  attentive.  In  Paris  they  made  themselves 
heard  preferably  on  the  Petit-Pont  (little  bridge),  which  in  the 
Middle  Ages  seems  to  have  played  the  rôle  of  the  Pont-Neuf 
(new  bridge)  in  the  seventeenth  century.  We  have  seen  how 
Gilles  de  Paris  heard  them  singing  to  the  people  the  gestes  of 
Charlemagne,  with  the  accompaniment  of  the  viol.  In  the 
great  square,  the  jugglers  erected  their  stages  from  which  they 
recited  their  verses  to  the  gaping  clowns.  In  certain  places 
taxes  were  demanded  from  them  ;  they  were  expected  to  pay 
in  money  or  small-wares.  This  was  the  case  at  Mimizan  in 
Aquitaine  (near  Mont-de-Marsan).  A  certain  W.-R.  de 
Monos  controlled  the  juggling  there,  and  collected  the  fourth 
of  the  dues  paid  by  the  performers.  He  held  this  right  in  fief 
from  the  King  of  England,  who  was  Duke  of  Aquitaine,  for 

189 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


the  consideration  of  a  hawk  which  he  owed  him  annually,  or, 
in  default,  ten  pounds  of  wax. 

And  here,  with  this  audience  of  passers-by  gathered  in  the 
public  square,  what  a  modest  harvest  it  must  have  been  ! 
One  of  the  minstrels  who  appears  in  Huon  de  Bordeaux  breaks 
off  in  an  epic  poem  to  exhort  his  auditors  to  come  next  day 
each  with  a  farthing  tied  up  in  his  shirt  (failing  a  purse)  ;  and 
above  all,  that  it  should  not  be  a  Poitevin  coin  but  one  of  Paris, 
for  the  Paris  farthing  was  worth  four  times  that  of  Poitou  : 

Come  back  to-morrow  after  dinner 
And  I  beg  of  you,  each  bring  me 
A  farthing  tied  up  in  your  shirts  ; 

For  in  these  Poitevin  coins  is  little  value  : 

Greedy  and  parsimonious  were  they  who  had  them  struck, — 
Never  give  them  to  a  gentle  minstrel. 

{Huon  de  Bordeaux ,  v.  4957.) 

For  the  rest,  if  the  minstrels  are  too  often  wretched,  it  is 
largely  the  result  of  their  careless  temperament  and  love  of 
pleasure.  One  of  them  says  mildly  : 

Do  not  repine  if  I  have  your  money, 

For  as  soon  as  I  have  it  to  the  tavern  it  will  go. 

{Baudoin  de  Sebourc ,  Chant  xii.  v.  921-22.) 

Our  minstrel,  if  he  has  earned  a  garment  or  some  money, 
and  happens  to  pass  a  tavern,  cannot  resist  the  invitation  of 
the  serving-man  of  the  inn,  who  hails  him  from  the  threshold. 
He  enters  : 


When  he  has  got  together  sous  three,  four,  five, 

Into  the  tavern  he  soon  goes 
And  feasts  with  it  while  it  lasts. 

And  when  he  has  tasted  the  good  wine, 

And  the  landlord  sees  he  has  spent  all  : 

“  Brother,”  says  he,  “  seek  another  inn, 

Give  me  pledge  of  what  you  owe.” 

And  he  leaves  with  him  his  hose  and  shoes. 

{Le  Moniage  Guillaume.) 

And  there  he  is,  like  the  poor  minstrel  of  Sens,  who  often 
had  not  a  whole  coat  to  his  back  : 

But  quite  often  in  his  shirt 

Was  exposed  to  wind  and  blast.  .  .  . 

{De  Saint  Pierre  et  du  jongleor .) 


190 


THE  MINSTRELS 

The  wind  is  cold,  the  blast  is  sharp  : 

I  do  not  see  come  April  or  May  ; 

Look  at  the  ice  ! 

Tolls  for  crossing  bridges  and  roads  they  pay  in  44  monkey 
money  44  ( monnaie  de  singe),  i.e.  by  a  trick  performed  by  them¬ 
selves,  or  the  little  animal  or  monkey  which  often  accompanies 
them — or  even  sometimes  by  some  verses  of  their  poems,  a 
couplet  of  their  songs. 

Greater  comfort  was  assured  to  the  minstrels  attached  as 
domestics  ( ministérielles )  to  some  great  house. 

Watriquet  has  sung  before  some  passer-by,  44  ballads  and 
short  rondeaus.”  His  auditors  ask  him  : 

Are  you  not  Raniques  ? 

— No  indeed,  by  Our  Lady,  but  Watriques, 

Minstrel  to  the  Count  of  Blois, 

And  also  to  my  lord  Gauchier 
De  Chastillon  (the  constable  .  .  .). 

(Fabliau  des  trois  chanoinesses  de  Cologne ,  v.  108.) 

Joinville  speaks  of  the  44  ministrels  of  the  rich  men,”  i.e.  of 
the  minstrels  attached  to  the  household  of  the  great  lords,  who 
come  to  the  court  of  the  King  with  their  viols.  After  the 
meal,  Saint  Louis  44  waited  to  hear  grace  said  until  the  minstrels 
had  recited  their  poems,  then  rose,  and  the  priests  who  were 
before  him  said  grace.” 

We  have  seen  that  some  great  lords  were  trouvères  or  trouba¬ 
dours.  They  kept  minstrels  who  lived  in  their  castles  among 
their  servants.  The  minstrels  accompanied  them  in  their 
travels.  They  performed  publicly  the  work  of  their  masters. 
A  certain  miniature  in  the  Bibliothèque  Nationale  represents 
the  poet  in  silken  tunic,  sitting  proudly  in  an  arm-chair  of  gold. 
He  holds  in  his  hand  the  baton  of  a  conductor  of  an  orchestra, 
with  which  he  marks  time  for  the  minstrel,  who,  standing 
before  him,  is  reciting  in  song  one  of  his  poems. 

Moreover,  the  great  lords  did  not  extend  their  protection  to 
the  minstrels  solely  for  the  amusement  they  afforded  them. 
These  poets  were  the  dispensers  of  fame  at  a  time  when  they 
were  the  only  recorders  of  men’s  actions.  Lambert  d’Ardres 
tells  that  the  author  of  the  Chanson  d? Antioche,  Richard  the 

191 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Pilgrim  (le  Pèlerin),  refused  to  mention  in  his  epic  story  the 
high  deeds  of  Arnold  the  Ancient,  lord  of  Ardres,  because  the 
latter  had  refused  him  a  pair  of  scarlet  shoes.  “  The  lord  of 
Ardres,”  says  Lambert,  44  shunning  human  glory,  preferred  to 
refuse  a  paltry  gift  to  a  buffoon  to  being  sung  and  praised  in 
his  songs  to  the  accompaniment  of  musical  instruments.”  We 
have  preserved  some  verses  of  the  Chanson  (T Antioche  by 
Richard  le  Pèlerin,  but  for  the  most  part  we  only  possess  his 
work  in  the  revised  version  of  Graindor  of  Douai.  It  has  been 
very  justly  remarked  that  Richard  Cœur  de  Lion  would  never 
have  had  the  brilliant  reputation  which  he  enjoyed  in  his  time, 
if  he  had  not  patronized  so  many  poets  and  minstrels.  Even 
in  his  absence  William  de  Longchamp,  who  remained  in 
England  as  regent,  brought  minstrels  from  France  to  sing  his 
praises  at  the  cross-roads  of  the  towns  before  the  assembled 
people. 

In  time  there  came  a  division  among  the  minstrels.  Some 
became  poets  who  composed  their  own  works  and  only  recited 
them  in  good  company.  Others  sang  or  recited  to  the  accom¬ 
paniment  of  musical  instruments  the  works  of  the  poets. 
Finally,  a  third  class  included  mountebanks,  pirouette  dancers, 
and  showmen. 

This  is  a  humbler  class,  scorned  by  the  minstrel  who  is 
assuming  a  more  refined  character  : 

A  minstrel  should  conduct  himself 
More  simply  than  a  maid  !... 

A  minstrel  who  wishes  to  act  rightly 
Should  not  imitate  the  mountebank, 

But  on  his  lips  should  ever  have 
Gentle  words  and  fine  language. 

Ah  !  44  fine  phrases,”  44  seemly  words,”  44  splendid  stories  ”  ; 
what  importance  our  minstrels  attach  to  them,  whether  they 
call  themselves  44  Short-Beard,”  44  Proud  Arms,”  44  Break-pot,” 
or  44  Simple  in  Love.” 

Contrary  to  general  opinion,  no  poets  have  had  in  a  higher 
degree  a  regard  for  form  than  the  trouvères,  troubadours,  and 
minstrels  of  the  twelfth  century.  Hundreds  of  years  before 
Malherbe,  they  know  the  44  force  ”  44  of  a  word  in  the  right 
192 


THE  MINSTRELS 


place.”  Poor  Boileau  was  lamentably  ignorant  of  his  most 
glorious  predecessors. 

Courte-Barbe  sums  up  all  the  aspirations  of  his  craft,  and 
indeed  all  those  of  the  modern  poet,  in  the  following  lines, 
which  end  with  a  timid  and  touching  appeal  to  Immortality  : 

A  matter  here  I  will  tell  you 
Of  a  fable  I  will  relate  to  you. 

The  minstrel  is  thought  wise 

Who  gives  his  time  to  writing  poems, 

To  making  fine  phrases  and  good  tales 
As  they  are  recited  before  Dukes  and  Counts. 

Fables  are  good  to  hear  : 

To  many  ills  and  sorrows  they  bring  forgetfulness, 

And  many  wearinesses  and  misdeeds  : 

Cortebarbe  made  this  fable  ; 

I  believe,  indeed,  that  it  will  not  be  forgotten. 

(Le  Fabliau  des  trois  aveugles  de  Comjnègne ,  v.  1.) 

Certainly  they  love  rhyme  and  44  assonance  ”  ;  but  they  do 
not  sacrifice  to  it  the  sense  of  their  lines.  They  prefer  reason 
to  rhyme.  44  A  plague  upon  a  fine  rhyme  if  it  detracts  from 
the  sense  !  ” 

I  will  endeavour  and  I  intend 
To  tell  a  fable  in  rhyme, 

Without  purple  patches  and  ambitious  rhymes. 

But  if  it  has  assonance 
I  care  not  who  speaks  ill  of  it. 

For  it  cannot  be  pleasing  to  all, 

Consonance,  without  good  words. 

(Fabliau  des  Trois  dames ,  v.  1  .  .  .) 

It  is  true  that  at  times  the  rhyme  is  difficult  to  find.  One 
gets  out  of  it  as  best  one  can,  by  some  cunning  turn  or  a  little 
juggling  : 

The  priest  says  immediately, 

First  loud  and  then  low, 

“  Dominus  Domino  meo,” 

But  I  cannot  in  o 
Find  here  assonance. 

(Fabliau  du  prestre  qui  dit  la  Passion ,  v.  50.) 

On  their  wax  tablets,  on  which  they  imprint  with  a  nimble 
pencil  their  gracious  or  droll  fancies,  they  efface  many  times 

N  193 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


lines  they  have  written,  to  improve  and  polish  their  texts. 
Cursed  wax  tablets  !  In  their  soft  and  fickle  paste,  how  many 
have  been  lost  of  these  charming  works  stamped  with  the 
Gallic  genius  of  the  minstrels  !  Parchment  was  dear  and  was 
only  used  for  important  work,  serious  productions  but  not 
always  the  best. 

The  minstrels’  art  began  to  decay  during  the  thirteenth 
century. 

The  era  of  the  minstrels  ends  about  the  beginning  of  the 
Hundred  Years  War.  Ministrelsy  and  Feudal  France  rose 
together  :  they  disappear  together.  44  Readers  ”  replace 
44  auditors.”  Chantecler,  as  he  is  called  in  the  Roman  de  Renard , 
the  bold  and  adventurous  minstrel,  dressed  in  a  hooded  robe, 
half  yellow,  half  green,  or  a  robe  of  red  silk, — Chantecler,  whom 
one  sees  with  44  a  green  chaplet  on  his  head,”  in  castles,  at  fairs, 
on  pilgrimages,  his  fiddle  in  hand,  his  memory  crammed  with 
epic  tales,  with  courtly  romances,  lays,  ballads,  and  fables, — 
gives  place  to  the  44  man  of  letters.” 

•  ••••••• 

Some  of  the  troubadours — the  poets  of  the  South — were, 
like  the  trouvères — the  poets  of  the  North — at  once  poets  and 
minstrels.  Some  of  them  were,  like  the  minstrels,  at  once 
poets  and  musicians — inventing  not  only  the  words  but  the 
tunes  of  their  poems.  They  had,  perhaps  more  still  than  the 
trouvères,  a  regard  for  form  to  such  a  degree  that  they  came, 
especially  in  the  first  period,  to  cultivate  this  for  its  own  sake, 
to  love  poetry  only  for  its  form,  which  led  them  through  over¬ 
refinement  to  the  recondite  word,  the  trobar  clans ,  i.e.  to 
obscure  expressions,  closed  to  the  profane. 

The  poetry  of  the  troubadours  flourishes,  like  that  of  the 
trouvères  from  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  up  to  the  thirteenth 
century.  The  period  of  its  greatest  brilliance  is  the  twelfth 
century  ;  while  the  greatest  poets  of  the  North,  the  authors 
of  the  finest  poems,  flourished  at  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century. 

The  poetry  of  the  troubadours  is  essentially,  and  almost 
exclusively,  a  lyric  poetry,  but  in  this  class  it  is  unequalled. 
Love  is  its  theme,  and  it  puts  love  in  the  frame  which  best 
becomes  it,  the  beautiful  scenes  of  Nature.  44  When  the  green 
grass  and  leaves  appear  and  the  flowers  open  in  the  orchards, 
194 


THE  MINSTRELS 


when  the  nightingale  begins  to  sing,  it  gladdens  me  to  hear 
him  and  to  see  the  flowers  ;  I  am  pleased  with  myself,  but 
more  still  with  my  wife,”  writes  Bernard  de  Ventadour.  This 
taste  for  Nature  at  her  gayest  is  pushed  to  such  a  degree  that 
Raimbaud  d' Orange  protests  against  this  orgy  of  nightingales 
singing  themselves  hoarse  in  flower-decked  meadows  : 

“  I  sing  not  for  bird,  or  flower,  or  dawn.  ...  I  sing  for 
the  lady  to  whom  my  thoughts  fly.  .  .  .” 

We  have  said  that  the  troubadours  wrote  in  the  dialect 
of  Limoges,  though  a  great  many  of  them  did  not  belong  to 
that  province.  Bernard  de  Ventadour,  Marcabrun,  Jaufre 
Rudel,  Arnaud  de  Mareuil,  Giraud  de  Bornelh,  Arnaud  Daniel, 
Bertrand  de  Born,  who  flourished  in  the  second  half  of  the 
twelfth  century,  are  the  best  representatives  of  the  poets  of 
Langue  d’oc. 

44  Bertrand  de  Born,”  says  Dante,  44  sang  of  arms,  Arnaud 
Daniel  of  love  ;  Giraud  de  Bornelh  of  integrity,  honesty,  and 
virtue.” 

The  one  whom  Dante  ranked  first  was  Arnaud  Daniel. 
44  He  was,”  he  says  in  his  Pur gator io,  44  the  greatest  artist  in 
his  native  tongue.  He  surpassed  all  others  in  romances  and 
love  poems  ;  say  what  they  may  those  fools  who  think  that 
Giraud  de  Bornelh  is  his  superior.”  Arnaud  Daniel  is  the  poet 
of  opulent  rhymes,  44  dear  ”  rhymes  as  he  called  them.  Is  it 
this  which  won  him  the  favour  of  Dante  ?  For  the  verdict  of 
the  great  Italian  poet  has  not  been  ratified  by  posterity.  The 
necessity  of  adapting  the  sense  to  the  opulent  rhymes,  44  lugu¬ 
briously  opulent  ”  as  Joseph  Bédier  so  well  terms  them,  has 
caused  him  more  than  once  to  sacrifice  lucidity  and  even 
poetry  itself.  Giraud  de  Bornelh  said  just  the  opposite  :  44  If 
I  had  the  talent  for  it  I  should  write  a  little  poem  which  my 
grandson  could  understand,  and  in  which  all  the  world  could 
take  pleasure.”  Giraud  de  Bornelh,  says  an  ancient  biographer, 
was  a  mason  from  the  district  of  Excideuil.  .  .  .  He  was  of 
low  birth.  .  .  .  He  was  termed  the  master  of  the  troubadours 
and  is  still  estimated  as  such  by  connoisseurs,  those  who 
appreciate  the  subtle  words  expressing  well  the  sentiment  of 
love.  In  the  winter  he  pursued  his  studies.  In  the  summer 
he  frequented  castles,  taking  with  him  two  singers  to  sing 

195 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


his  poems.  He  would  never  take  a  wife  ;  and  all  he  earned 
he  gave  to  his  poor  relatives  and  to  the  church  of  the  town  in 
which  he  was  born. 

Bertrand  de  Born  is  the  soldier  poet  : 

“  I  am  well  pleased  with  the  good  season  of  Easter,  which 
brings  the  leaves  and  flowers  ;  I  love  to  hear  the  joy  of  the 
birds,  which  fill  the  woods  with  song  ;  but  also  I  love  to  see, 
in  battle  array,  horses  and  armed  knights.” 

44  I  love  to  see  the  scouts  and  behind  them  the  main  body 
of  the  soldiers.  I  love  to  see  strong  castles  besieged,  the 
fortifications  battered  down  and  demolished,  and  the  army 
on  the  slope  surrounded  by  moats  and  palisades  of  strong  and 
serried  staves.  .  .  .” 

Peyre  Cardinal  holds  a  unique  position  among  the  trouba¬ 
dours  ;  he  alone,  of  these  poets  of  love,  jests  about  love  : 

44  Never  did  I  gain  so  much  as  on  the  day  I  lost  my  love, 
for  in  losing  her  I  found  myself,  whom  I  had  lost.  .  .  .” 

44  At  last  I  can  sing  the  praises  of  love,  for  it  no  longer 
deprives  me  of  appetite  and  sleep  ;  it  no  longer  exposes  me  to 
heat  and  cold  ;  it  no  longer  makes  me  sigh  or  wander  aimlessly 
at  night  ;  I  no  longer  declare  myself  overcome  and  vanquished  ; 
love  saddens  or  tortures  me  no  longer  ;  I  am  no  longer  be¬ 
trayed  ;  heigho  !  I  have  departed  with  my  dice. 

44  I  fear  no  longer  jealousy  ;  I  no  longer  commit  heroic 
follies.  I  am  no  longer  beaten,  I  am  robbed  no  more  ;  nor 
do  I  now  dance  attendance.  I  no  longer  declare  myself  van¬ 
quished  by  love.  I  have  departed  with  my  dice. 

44  I  no  longer  declare  that  I  am  dying  for  the  fairest,  nor 
that  she  makes  me  languish.  I  no  longer  beseech  her,  nor 
adore  her,  foolish  at  her  feet.  I  no  longer  claim  or  desire  her. 
I  do  homage  to  her  no  more.  I  put  myself  no  longer  in  her 
power,  nor  am  I  subject  to  her.  She  has  no  longer  my  heart 
in  fee.  I  am  no  longer  her  prisoner  ;  heigho  !  I  have  departed 
with  my  dice.” 

But  we  have  here  a  unique  exception,  for  all  the  work  of 
the  troubadours  forms  a  hymn,  repeated  and  varied  thousands 
of  times,  to  love  in  fair  Nature. 

We  have  seen  that  it  reached  its  apogee  in  the  second  half 
of  the  twelfth  century.  In  the  thirteenth  the  poetic  vein  loses 
196 


THE  MINSTRELS 

its  richness.  By  dint  of  harping  continuously  on  the  same 
theme,  the  troubadours  arrive  in  the  end  at  a  conception  of 
love,  refined  and  subtilized  to  such  a  degree  that  it  has  no  longer 
in  it  anything  of  this  world.  Through  the  religious  reaction 
which  follows  the  Albigensian  Crusade,  the  improvisation  is 
transformed  gradually  into  a  hymn  of  purified  love  which 
becomes  a  hymn  to  the  Virgin,  who  is  the  purest,  fairest, 
gentlest  of  all  women. 

So  much  so  that  there  was  no  longer  any  other  admissible 
form  of  poetry  than  those  hymns  to  Mary,  the  last  blossoms 
of  the  old  poetry  of  Langue  d’oc,  which  produced  in  course  of 
time  that  interminable  series  of  poems  to  the  Virgin  winning 
the  prizes  at  the  floral  games. 

Sources. — E.  Koswitz,  Les  plus  anciens  monuments  de  la  langue  fran¬ 
çaises,  3rd  ed.,  Heilbronn,  1897  ;  Œuvres  de  Rutebœuf,  ed.  Jubinal,  1874- 
75,  3  vols.  ;  Les  Chansons  de  Colin  Muset,  ed.  Bédier,  1912  ;  Montaiglon- 
Raynaud,  Recueil  des  fabliaux  .  .  .,  1872-80,  6  vols.  ;  P.  Paris,  La 
Romancere  français ,  1833  ;  K.  Bartsch,  Alt  franzôsiche  Romanzen  u. 
Pastourellen,  Leipzig,  1870  ;  K.  Bartsch,  Deutsche  Liederdichter  from  the 
Thirteenth  to  the  Fourteenth  Century,  3rd  ed.,  Stuttgart,  1893  ;  Les 
Chansons  de  Guillaume  IX  d'Aquitaine,  ed.  Jeanroy,  1913  ;  Les  Poesies  de 
Peire  Vidal ,  edited  and  translated  by  Langlade,  1913. 

Historical  Works. — P.  Paris,  “  Chansonniers  du  XIIe  Siècle,”  in 
the  Histoire  littéraire  de  la  France,  xxiii.  512-838  ;  E.  Freymond,  Jongleurs 
und  Ménestrels,  Halle,  1883  ;  Jos.  Bédier,  Les  Fabliaux ,  1893  ;  Edm. 
Faral,  Les  jongleurs  en  France,  1911  ;  Jos.  Anglade,  Les  Troubadours, 
1809.  This  book  of  M.  Anglade  is  of  a  rare  value.  A.  Schultz,  Dar 
Hofische  Leben  zur  Zeit  der  Minnesinger,  2nd  ed.,  Leipzig,  1889  ;  Ch.  V. 
Langlois,  La  Société  française  au  XIIIe  Siècle,  2nd  ed.,  1904. 


197 


CHAPTER  X 


THE  UNIVERSITY 

The  first  schools  were  set  up  by  abbots  and  bishops.  The 
trivium  and  quadrivium.  Paris  the  capital  of  letters.  The  Uni¬ 
versity.  The  students.  Organization  of  the  University  of 
Paris.  The  Colleges.  The  Sorbonne. 

IN  the  sphere  of  learning  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  cen¬ 
turies  saw  an  intense  movement,  as  powerful  perhaps 
as  in  the  social  and  economic  sphere,  as  powerful  as 
in  art  and  literature.  Nowadays  we  should  certainly  never 
dream  of  comparing  the  brilliance  of  the  science  and  philosophy 
of  the  Middle  Ages  with  that  of  their  art  and  literature.  The 
reason  for  this  is  that  sciences  make  continuous  progress.  Each 
of  the  newcomers  who,  while  profiting  by  the  work  of  his 
predecessors,  increases  them  by  his  personal  discoveries,  in 
doing  so  casts  some  spadefuls  of  oblivion  on  the  results  achieved 
by  them.  Consequently,  the  progress  made  in  an  age  gone  by 
will  seem  of  little  importance  to  modern  times,  by  the  very 
fact  of  the  progress  made  during  the  following  centuries  ;  while 
a  poet  or  an  artist  endowed  with  an  inventive  genius  and  a 
vivid  originality  produces  works  to  which  nothing  is  added 
later.  Time  passes  over  them  like  the  tide  over  rocks.  De¬ 
tached  and  brilliant,  they  will  never  cease  to  bear  free 
comparison  with  the  creations  of  succeeding  generations. 

Beginning  from  the  second  half  of  the  eleventh  century, 
there  is  manifested  in  the  nation  a  great  desire  for  learning. 

“  On  all  sides,”  writes  Guibert  de  Nogent,  “  people  devote 
themselves  ardently  to  study.”  When  Abelard  (1075-1143), 
condemned  by  a  council,  takes  refuge  in  a  lonely  district  on  the 
banks  of  the  Arduson,  he  sees  a  flood  of  disciples  coming  to 
him  ;  the  desert  is  peopled  around  him. 

The  first  schools  were  set  up  by  the  abbots  of  the  mon- 

198 


THE  UNIVERSITY 


asteries  and  by  the  bishops  in  their  cities  :  cloistral  or  episcopal 
schools  attached  to  the  cloisters  of  the  monasteries  or  the 
cathedrals.  Every  great  church  had  a  library.  The  most 
famous  of  these  schools  in  the  tenth  century  was  the  diocesan 
school  of  Reims,  in  which  Gerbert  taught.  Then  followed 
that  of  Chartres,  in  which  Fulbert  shone.  We  must  mention  too 
the  schools  of  Laon  and  Orleans. 

The  monastic  schools  were  not  less  flourishing.  That  of 
Fleury-sur-Loire,  with  Abbo,  enjoyed  a  great  reputation  from 
the  end  of  the  tenth  century.  In  the  eleventh  century  it  is 
by  his  teaching  at  St.  Martin  de  Tours  that  Bérenger  dis¬ 
tinguishes  himself.  The  Parisians  group  themselves  round 
masters  who  teach  at  St.  Germain-des-Prés  or  at  St.  Maur. 
The  Cluniac  establishments  deserve  special  mention. 

In  these  monasteries  instruction  was  given  freely.  Their 
resources  dispensed  them  from  the  need  of  demanding  pay¬ 
ment.  The  schools  of  the  bishops  and  the  chapters  made 
children  of  rich  people  pay  ;  they  gave  free  education  to  the 
children  of  the  common  people.  Some  of  these  establishments 
were  not  content  with  giving  free  instruction  :  they  provided 
for  all  the  needs  of  many  pupils. 

In  the  diocesan  schools  it  was  generally  the  bishop’s  chan¬ 
cellor  who  performed  the  functions  of  schoolmaster  ;  or  at 
least  the  schoolmaster  was  placed  under  his  orders.  Both  of 
them  had  masters  to  assist  them,  and  when  the  cloister  and  the 
cathedral  proved  too  small  to  contain  the  flow  of  pupils,  we  see 
clerics,  who  had  finished  their  studies,  organizing  classes  in  the 
town  by  which  they  spread  the  knowledge  they  had  acquired. 
They  taught  with  the  permission  of  the  Chancellor  who  gave 
them  the  licence  to  do  so  :  licentia  docendi. 

The  divisions  into  which  the  curriculum  was  distributed  in 
the  Middle  Ages  are  well  known.  They  are  the  trivium ,  in¬ 
cluding  the  liberal  arts,  i.e.  grammar,  rhetoric,  and  logic  ; 
followed  by  the  quadrivium ,  in  which  were  ranged  the  sciences, 
i.e.  arithmetic,  geometry,  astronomy,  and  music.  Above  the 
trivium  and  quadrivium  were  the  three  faculties  :  theology,  law, 
and  medicine. 

In  the  twelfth  century  the  writers  of  antiquity  come  into 
favour  again.  Among  the  Greeks  hardly  any  but  Aristotle  and 

199 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Plato  are  studied  ;  among  the  Latins  the  favourite  authors  are 
Vergil,  Horace,  and  Lucan.  Latin  verse  is  read  ;  and  it  is  also 
composed,  in  the  lightest  vein,  even  in  the  monasteries. 

Paris  becomes  the  capital  of  letters  and  the  “  arts.” 
Towards  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  schools  sprung 
from  the  cloister  of  Notre  Dame  become  numerous.  The  City, 
the  Petit-Pont,  are  full  to  overflowing  with  them.  They  over¬ 
flow  on  to  the  left  bank  and  creep  up  the  side  of  the  hill  of 
St.  Geneviève. 

“  Philosophy  and  all  clerkly  knowledge  flourished  in  Paris  ; 
the  study  of  the  seven  arts  was  so  great  there  and  in  such 
authority  that  it  was  not  so  full  or  so  fervent  in  Athens,  Egypt, 
or  Rome,  or  in  any  part  of  the  world.  And  it  was  not  only 
for  the  delectability  of  the  place,  nor  for  the  great  quantity 
of  things  in  which  the  city  abounded,  but  for  the  peace  and 
liberty  which  the  good  King  Louis  (Louis  VII)  had  given  and 
which  King  Philip,  his  son  (Philip  Augustus),  gave  to  the 
masters  and  scholars.  Moreover,  they  did  not  only  read  in  this 
noble  city  the  seven  liberal  sciences,  but  decrees,  and  laws,  and 
physic,  and  there  was  read  above  all  the  holy  page  of  theology.’-’ 
(Chron.  de  St.  Denis).  And  these  “  lecteurs  ”  (masters)  bore 
the  most  illustrious  names  :  from  foreign  lands  there  came 
to  take  rank  among  them  such  men  as  Saint  Thomas  and  Albert 
the  Great. 

The  sum  of  the  teaching  remained  subject  to  ecclesiastical 
authority.  The  first  universities,  those  of  Paris,  Toulouse, 
Montpelier,  and  Orleans,  were  for  a  long  time  only  associations 
of  priests  and  clerks.  The  students  wear  the  tonsure.  For 
the  word  “  University  ”  does  not  apply  at  this  time  to  the  sum 
of  the  sciences  taught  ;  it  means  “  association.”  There  were 
then  the  association  of  the  masters  and  that  of  the  pupils.  The 
first  is  found  constituted  during  the  pontificate  of  Innocent  III 
(end  of  the  thirteenth  century).  It  has  statutes,  pleads  in  the 
Roman  Court,  for  it  has  lost  no  time  in  entering  on  a  struggle 
with  the  Episcopal  Chancellor  who  claims  to  hold  it  in  tutelage. 
The  seal  of  the  University  of  Paris — which,  by  the  way,  does 
not  appear  before  the  first  third  of  the  thirteenth  century — 
bears  the  figure  of  the  Virgin  its  patron,  and  that  of  the  Bishop 
of  Paris.  These  University  associations  are  placed  under  the 
200 


THE  UNIVERSITY 


superior  authority  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  who  watches  over 
them  with  the  more  attention  as  the  University  of  Paris  is 
destined  to  produce  more  particularly  theologians,  as  that  of 
Orleans  lawyers,  and  Montpelier  doctors. 

In  matters  of  religious  doctrine  the  University  of  Paris 
will  form  an  authority  ;  on  her  Councils  and  Sovereign  Pontiffs 
will  depend.  At  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  still, 
Erasmus  will  say  that  the  French  boast  themselves  to  be  the 
first  theologians  in  the  world. 

A  conflict  which  broke  out  at  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century 
between  the  association  of  teaching  masters  on  the  one  side,  and 
the  Chancellor  of  the  Bishop  of  Paris  on  the  other,  did  much 
to  give  precision  to  the  organization  of  the  universities.  The 
Chancellor  claimed  to  demand  from  the  candidates  for  a  licence 
(to  teach)  an  oath  of  obedience.  The  Masters  also  complained 
that  the  Chancellor  granted  or  refused  the  licence  at  his 
pleasure,  without  taking  account  of  their  opinion.  There  was 
an  agitation  in  the  University  :  the  Masters  held  meetings. 
The  dispute  was  put  before  Innocent  III.  After  an  inter¬ 
minable  process,  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  sanctioned  the  greater 
number  of  the  claims  formulated  by  the  Paris  Masters. 

The  masters  and  the  pupils,  huddled  in  the  little  streets  of 
the  City,  had  on  their  side,  in  order  to  ensure  the  triumph  of 
their  cause,  emigrated  in  great  numbers  to  the  left  bank,  where 
the  Chancellor  of  the  Abbey  of  St.  Geneviève  also  gave  them 
44  licences.” 

For  that  matter  it  had  become  difficult  to  confine  the  teach¬ 
ing  to  a  dogmatic  rigidity,  in  face  of  a  youthful  generation 
greedy  for  knowledge  and  independence.  44  Babblers  in  flesh 
and  bone,”  writes  Stephen  of  Tournai,  44  discuss  irreverently 
the  immaterial,  the  essence  of  God,  the  incarnation  of  the 
Word.  One  hears  at  the  cross-roads  subtle  reasoners  chopping 
up  the  indivisible  Trinity.”  The  Abbot  of  St.  Victor,  for  his 
part,  writes  :  44  Our  scholars  are  pleased  when,  by  dint  of 

subtleties,  they  have  arrived  at  some  discovery  !  They  do  not 
want  to  know  about  the  conformation  of  the  earth,  the  virtues 
of  the  elements,  the  position  of  the  stars,  the  nature  of  animals, 
the  velocity  of  the  wind,  about  trees  or  roots.  They  think 
they  can  solve  the  riddle  of  the  universe  ;  but  they  look  with 

201 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


bleared,  not  to  say  blind,  eyes  on  the  supreme  Cause,  the  end 
and  principle  of  all  things.” 

Our  masters  come  to  the  point  of  discussing  the  acts  and 
decrees  of  the  Holy  See  itself.  The  Papal  Legate,  Benedict 
Gaetani,  the  prelate  who  is  to  take  the  name  of  Boniface  VIII 
when  he  ascends  the  pontifical  throne,  will  exclaim  passionately 
(30th  November  1290)  :  44  You,  Paris  Masters,  in  your  desks, 
think  the  world  should  be  ruled  by  your  reasonings.  But, 
no  !  It  is  to  us  that  the  world  has  been  entrusted.  You  waste 
your  time  in  foolishness.  And  even  were  your  reasonings 
good  there  would  be  a  way  to  answer  them,  and  this  is  it  : 
4  Under  pain  of  deprivation  of  offices  and  benefices  it  is  for¬ 
bidden  to  all  masters  to  preach,  discuss,  or  confer  on  the  (papal) 
privileges,  either  publicly  or  privately.  I  truthfully  declare 
to  you,  that  rather  than  go  back  on  its  word,  the  Court  of  Rome 
would  destroy  the  University.’  ” 

Masters  and  pupils  formed  an  association  independent  of 
the  royal  power,  at  once  a  society  of  mutual  help  and  a  religious 
confraternity,  placed  under  the  patronage  of  the  Holy  See. 

The  masters  of  the  University  of  Paris  in  the  beginning 
occupied  the  streets  of  the  City,  near  the  approaches  of  the 
cathedral  under  whose  auspices  the  first  schools  had  been 
opened.  In  the  twelfth  century,  as  we  have  seen,  they  had 
crossed  the  Petit-Pont  to  group  themselves  on  the  slope  of  the 
hill  of  St.  Geneviève.  There  was  formed  the  University  town, 
including  masters  and  pupils,  with  its  privileges,  its  laws,  and 
its  police.  The  official  foundation  of  the  University  by  the 
Pope  and  the  King  (Philip  Augustus)  dates  from  the  year 
1200.  In  1215,  in  an  act  of  Cardinal  Robert  de  Courçon,  there 
appeared  for  the  first  time  the  words  Universitas  magistrorum 
et  scolarium.  It  was  a  real  little  State  within  Paris,  with  its 
own  tribunals,  concerned  in  frequent  disputes  with  the  neigh¬ 
bouring  State,  the  town  of  the  Abbey  of  St.  Germain-des-Prés. 
And  what  conflicts  with  the  labourers  of  the  Abbey,  the  culti¬ 
vators  of  the  Priests’  Meadow  ;  bloody,  sometimes  murderous 
conflicts.  44  They  are  bolder  than  knights,”  says  Philip 
Augustus,  in  speaking  of  the  students  of  Paris,  44  for  knights 
clothed  in  their  armour  hesitate  to  engage  in  battle  ;  while 
these  clerks,  with  neither  helmet  nor  hauberk,  and  with  their 
202 


THE  UNIVERSITY 


tonsured  heads,  throw  themselves  into  the  fight  armed  only 
with  knives.”  44  The  members  of  Paris  and  Orleans,”  says  a 
contemporary,  44  are  turbulent,  fighters  :  they  would  disturb 
the  whole  earth.” 

It  was  already  the  vivid,  picturesque,  animated  life  which 
has  gone  on  ever  since.  Robert  de  Courçon  might  demand 
that  the  University  student  should  wear  a  44  round  cloak  of  a 
subdued  colour  reaching  to  the  feet,”  as  is  becoming  to  clerics  ; 
the  habit  does  not  make  the  monk,  or  the  scholar.  44  For 
eating  and  drinking  they  have  no  equals,”  writes  Pierre  le 
Mangeur.  44  They  are  gourmands  at  table,  but  not  devotees 
at  Mass.  They  yawn  at  their  work  ;  at  feasts  they  respect 
no  one.  They  detest  meditation  on  the  sacred  Scriptures  ; 
but  they  love  to  see  wine  sparkling  in  their  glass,  and  they 
drink  it  off  gallantly.” 

To  the  strains  of  tambourine  and  guitar,  they  sing  to  the 
beautiful  eyes  of  Marion  or  Lisette. 

Time  flies, 

I  have  nothing  done. 

Time  comes  again, 

I  have  done  nothing. 

Here  is  a  vivid  sketch  : 

Four  Normans  scholars  and  clerks, 

Their  bags  carry  round  their  necks, 

Within  them  their  books  and  clothes. 

Very  handsome  they  were  and  plump, 

Pleasant  and  merrily  singing. 

(Fabliau  de  la  bourgeoisie  d'Orléans.) 

Moreover,  there  was  among  them  more  than  one  44  goliard,” 
a  free-lance,  without  domicile  or  means  of  support.  Some,  in 
the  intervals  of  study,  plied  the  trade  of  minstrels,  rhyming 
in  French  and  Latin,  tales,  fables,  ballads,  and  jeux  partis  ; 
living  on  resources  the  most  diverse,  sometimes  most  ingenious 
if  not  always  very  honest.  44  Some  of  them,”  says  Robert 
of  Sorbon,  44  are  better  acquainted  with  the  rules  of  dice  than 
those  of  logic.”  But  there  were  also  good  scholars  studious 
and  well  conducted.  In  the  evening  they  might  be  seen  strolling 
along  the  banks  of  the  Seine,  beside  the  Priests’  Meadow, 
repeating  the  day’s  lesson  or  reflecting  on  the  Master’s  teaching. 

203 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Others,  among  those  most  worthy  of  interest,  are  of  poor 
families.  How  can  they  buy  the  necessary  books  and  pay 
the  professors  of  theology  ?  They  have  only  St.  Nicholas, 
the  patron  of  scholars,  to  help  them.  They  make  copies  for 
their  comrades  or  hire  themselves  out  as  carriers  of  water. 
And  in  the  end  they  manage,  all  the  same,  to  outstrip  those 
of  their  companions,  who  being  very  rich  possess  numerous 
books  which  they  have  never  opened. 

The  following  letter,  written  in  the  twelfth  century,  is 
typical  of  any  period  : 

44  To  our  dear  and  respected  parents,  salutation  and  filial 
obedience,”  write  some  gentle  students.  44  Know  that,  by 
the  grace  of  God,  we  remain  in  good  health  in  the  city  of  Orleans 
and  that  we  give  ourselves  entirely  to  study,  knowing  that, 
as  Cato  said  :  4  It  is  glorious  to  know  something.’  We  live 
in  a  good  and  handsome  house  separated  from  the  schools 
and  the  market-place  by  a  single  building,  so  that  we  can  go 
every  day  to  the  lectures  without  soiling  our  feet.  We  have 
also  good  comrades  already  well  advanced  and  very  desirable. 
We  are  glad  of  it,  for  the  Psalmist  said  :  4  Cum  sancto  sanctus 
eris .’  But  in  order  that  the  end  we  have  in  view  shall  not 
be  hindered  by  the  want  of  implements  we  think  we  ought  to 
appeal  to  your  paternal  affection  and  ask  you  to  send  us  enough 
money  to  buy  parchment,  ink,  an  inkstand,  and  other  things 
which  we  need.  You  will  not  leave  us  in  a  state  of  embarrass¬ 
ment  and  you  are  anxious  that  we  should  finish  our  studies 
properly,  so  as  to  be  able  to  return  home  with  honour.  The 
bearer  would  carry  also  any  shoes  and  hose  you  might  send. 
You  could  also  send  us  your  news  by  him.” 

These  demands  for  money  are  repeated  in  every  form  : 

44  See,  it  is  two  months  since,”  writes  a  son  to  his  father, 
44  that  I  spent  the  last  penny  of  the  money  you  gave  me.  Life 
is  expensive  ;  so  many  things  are  wanted  ;  one  must  have  a 
lodging,  and  what  numbers  of  things  there  are  to  buy  !  You, 
my  father,  know  well  that,  without  Ceres  and  Bacchus,  Apollo 
cuts  a  sorry  figure.”  And  what  numbers  of  reasons  for  asking 
for  the  dispatch  of  precious  money  ( livres  tournois — Tours 
coins)  !  In  the  town  everything  is  dear — is  this  not  always 
the  case  in  University  towns  ? — and  the  exceptionally  large 
204 


THE  UNIVERSITY 


number  of  students  makes  everything  still  dearer  ;  the  harvests 
have  been  bad  ;  the  rooms  with  their  lofty  ceilings  are  difficult 
to  heat,  and  the  winter  is  so  exceptionally  hard. 

But  the  paternal  reply  does  not  fail  to  be  written  in  the 
same  key  : 

“  Certainly,  my  dear  son,  I  would  send  you  money,  and 
gladly,  but  the  rains  have  spoilt  my  harvests  and  the  birds 
have  pecked  the  grapes  in  the  vineyards.  I  should  have  to 
go  to  the  money-lenders,  and  that  would  be  madness.”  Or, 
with  a  frown,  the  father  replies  more  severely  that  his  son 
ought  to  be  ashamed  to  be  getting  money  out  of  the  author  of 
his  being,  whom  he  really  ought  to  be  assisting. 

Then  he  turns  to  a  heart  which  he  knows  is  softer,  that  of 
his  little  sister  :  “A  sensible  and  tactful  sister  ought  to  be 
able  to  stir  up  her  husband  and  relatives  to  help  a  brother 
in  need.  Sweet  little  sister,  I  ought  to  let  you,  in  your  love 
for  me,  know  that  I  study  gladly  and,  thank  God,  learn  well. 
But  what  misery  I  have  to  bear  !  I  lie  on  straw,  without 
sheets  ;  I  go  without  hose,  badly  dressed,  shirtless.  I  won’t 
mention  the  bread  I  get  to  eat.  So  I  beg  of  you,  sweet  little 
sister,  subtly  to  persuade  your  husband  to  come  to  my  help 
and  with  as  much  as  he  can  spare.” 

And  the  sweet  little  sister  allows  herself  to  be  touched, 
perhaps  a  little  too  much.  She  sends  her  brother  a  hundred 
sous  of  Tours  (which  would  be  worth  now  about  a  thousand 
francs),  two  pairs  of  sheets,  and  six  ells  of  good  cloth.  She 
tells  him,  however,  to  take  care  that  her  husband  shall 
not  know  of  this,  “  for  if  he  hears  of  it,  I  am  a  dead 
woman.”  “  Besides,  I  firmly  believe,”  she  adds,  “  that  on 
his  part  he  will  shortly  send  you,  at  my  suggestion,  some 
money.” 

For  their  studies  at  the  University,  the  students  received 
money,  not  only  from  their  relatives,  but  by  a  system  which 
one  might  have  thought  quite  modern,  from  the  churches, 
which  allocated  bursaries  to  them. 

The  students,  who  wrote  the  letter  we  have  just  quoted 
were  still  at  Orleans,  but  it  is  at  Paris  that  all  have  the  ambition 
to  go  for  their  studies  : 

For  it  is  like  Paris  gold. 


205 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


(The  gold  of  the  Parisian  goldsmiths  had  the  reputation  of 
being  the  best  gold  in  the  world.) 

A  clerk  is  not  much  worth 
Who  has  not  been  to  Paris 
To  study,  and  stayed  there, 

And  studied  so  much 

And  so  much  learned  that  he  has  become  a  master, 

Who  there  and  elsewhere 
Are  renowned  with  the  best. 

(Robert  of  Blois,  V Enseignement  des  Princes ,  v.  1503.) 

44  Fortunate  city,”  says  Philip  of  Harvengt,  speaking  of 
Paris — 44  fortunate  city,  in  which  the  students  are  so  many, 
that  their  great  numbers  almost  exceed  those  of  the  inhabi¬ 
tants.”  Students  came  to  Paris  from  all  parts  of  Europe 
— from  England,  from  Germany,  from  Scandinavia.  44  O 
Paris  !  ”  cries  Pierre  de  la  Celle  in  1164,  “  you  catch  souls  with 
lime.”  And  Lanfranc,  the  celebrated  surgeon  of  Milan  :  44  Paris, 
you  beget  clerks  !  Unfortunate  me,  who  have  lost  so  much  time 
far  from  your  most  honourable  and  most  holy  studies  !  ” 

44  At  that  time  ”  (1210),  writes  William  le  Breton,  44  at  Paris 
letters  were  brilliant.  At  no  epoch  and  in  no  part  of  the  world 
had  such  a  flow  of  students  ever  been  seen.  This  is  not  only 
accounted  for  by  the  admirable  beauty  of  the  town,  but  by  the 
privileges  which  the  King  (Philip  Augustus)  and  his  father  had 
conferred  on  the  scholars.  .  .  .” 

About  the  same  period  (a  little  before  1190)  a  clerk  of 
Champagne,  Gui  de  Basoches,  gives  us  a  picturesque  sketch  of 
the  University  town.  44  The  Grand-Pont,”  he  writes,  44  is  the 
centre  of  things.  It  is  cumbered  with  merchandise,  merchants, 
and  boats.  The  Petit-Pont  is  appropriated  by  the  dialecticians, 
who  cross  it,  walking  and  discussing  things.  In  the  He  (the 
City),  adjoining  the  palace  of  the  King,  one  sees  the  palace  of 
philosophy  where  learning  reigns  supreme,  the  citadel  of  light 
and  immortality  :  the  eternal  dwelling  of  the  Seven  Sisters, 
the  liberal  arts  whence  springs  the  source  of  religious 
science.” 

It  is  a  fine  and  joyous  life,  and  one  which  our  students  love 
to  prolong.  More  than  one  turns  a  deaf  ear  when  his  family 
summons  him  home  and  holds  before  his  eyes  the  most  tempting 
206 


THE  UNIVERSITY 


bribes.  To  one  they  propose  a  fiancée  clever  and  gentle,  and, 
moreover,  a  brunette  :  she  is  elegant,  beautiful,  wise,  and  of  the 
highest  birth  ;  she  will  bring  him  a  big  dowry  and  splendid 
connections  through  her  relatives.  But  the  student  replies 
that  it  will  always  be  easy  to  find  a  wife,  whereas  it  would  be 
folly  to  give  up  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  just  at  the  moment 
when  he  is  on  the  point  of  mastering  it. 

The  studies  finished  by  the  licence  which  gave  the  scholar 
the  power  of  teaching  in  his  turn  :  an  examination  which  was 
accompanied  by  a  banquet  given  by  the  new  member  to  his 
masters  and  comrades.  A  Paris  student  begs  a  friend  to 
explain  all  this  to  his  father,  whose  bourgeois  soul  will  not 
grasp  it  alone.  He  needs  the  money  for  this  banquet,  and 
this  is  the  only  obstacle  between  him  and  the  final  goal. 

All  the  tests  have,  at  length,  been  undergone,  and  behold 
the  triumphant  letter  written  to  the  parents  who,  far  away 
from  their  son,  must  have  read  it  with  a  feeling  of  pride  : 

44  Sing  new  canticles  to  the  glory  of  God  !  Play  the  viol 
and  the  organ  ;  sound  the  loud  cymbals  !  Your  son  has  just 
maintained  a  learned  thesis  in  the  presence  of  a  numerous 
assembly  of  masters  and  students.  I  replied  to  all  the  ques¬ 
tions  without  hesitation  ;  no  one  could  stump  me.  I  have 
given  a  magnificent  banquet  at  which  rich  and  poor  have  been 
regaled  as  never  before.  Already  I  have  solemnly  opened  a 
school.  And  how  full  it  has  been  since  the  first  day  !  The 
neighbouring  schools  are  denuded  to  furnish  me  with  a  great 
number  of  auditors.” 

We  have  seen  that  the  University  included  three  higher 
Faculties  :  theology,  medicine,  and  canon  law.  Below  these 
we  have  distinguished  the  Masters  of  Arts,  who  taught  the 
students  the  branches  of  the  trivium  and  quadrivium.  They 
and  their  pupils  were  known  as  the  44  artists.”  Each  of  the 
three  Faculties  formed  a  special  corporation.  As  to  the 
44  artists,”  they  were  divided  into  four  44  nations  ”  according 
to  the  native  country  of  the  students — the  French,  the  Picards, 
the  Normans,  and  the  English.  The  four  nations  appear  for 
the  first  time  in  a  document  of  1222. 

In  1245  the  four  44  nations  ”  gave  themselves  a  common  head, 
a  Rector.  This  latter  soon  became  the  head  of  the  whole 

207 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


university,  the  three  great  Faculties  themselves,  whose  members 
had  all  passed  through  the  University  of  the  Arts,  agreeing 
that  he  should  concern  himself  with  their  interests. 

We  must  not  picture  the  University  of  Paris  in  buildings 
specially  arranged  like  those  in  which  it  is  established  at  the 
present  time.  The  majority  of  the  masters  taught  in  their 
own  homes.  The  pupils  gathered  in  a  compact  body  in  obscure 
habitations,  sitting  on  the  ground.  In  the  winter  the  ground 
was  strewn  with  straw,  whence  the  name  given  to  the  street 
in  which  many  of  these  schools  were  found,  rue  du  Fouarre 
(  feurre=  straw).  The  Master  spoke  from  in  front  of  a  desk,  on 
a  raised  platform.  He  was  dressed  in  a  black  robe  with  long 
folds  and  a  hood  of  minever.  The  lessons  consisted  of  ex¬ 
planations  of  the  texts  used  for  examinations.  The  fault 
of  this  teaching  was  that  it  continued  to  rely  wholly  on  books. 
According  to  Fra  Bartolommeo  of  Bologna,  logic  is  Aristotle, 
medicine  means  Gallienus,  Cicero  is  rhetoric,  and  Priscian  is 
grammar.  If  the  pupils  became  too  numerous  the  teaching 
was  given  in  the  open  air,  at  the  cross-roads,  in  the  squares. 
The  meetings  of  the  Faculties  were  held  in  a  monastery,  at 
Paris  at  the  Maturins,  or  in  the  chapter-house  of  the  Cis¬ 
tercians.  The  “  artists  ”  met  every  Saturday  in  the  Church 
of  St.  Julien  le  Pauvre. 

The  majority  of  the  students  who  followed  the  University 
courses  in  the  Middle  Ages,  like  the  majority  of  those  who 
follow  them  to-day,  had  somejpractical  end  in  view.  They 
were  learning  a  profession  there,  intending,  when  their  ^studies 
were  finished,  to  enter  the  Church,  or  to  engage  in  the  practice 
of  medicine  or  in  that  of  the  law. 

The  corporate  organization  which  the  masters  and  students 
of  the  University  of  Paris  had  come  to  form  for  themselves, 
while  it  had  some  precious  advantages — and  the  most  precious 
of  all,  independence — had  some  grave  drawbacks.  A  great 
part  of  the  energy  expended  in  these  centres  of  learning  was 
wasted  in  disputes  between  groups  and  coteries,  in  struggles  of 
rival  influences.  A  picture  of  it  is  given  by  the  Chancellor, 
Philip  de  Grève,  at  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century  : 
“  Formerly  when  each  taught  on  his  own  account  and  the 
name  ‘  University  ’  was  not  yet  known,  lessons  and  disputa- 
208 


THE  UNIVERSITY 


tions  were  more  frequent  ;  there  was  more  ardour  for  study. 
But  to-day,  when  you  are  united  in  a  single  body,  now  that  you 
have  formed  yourselves  into  a  University,  teaching  and  dis¬ 
cussion  are  rare.  Every  one  hurries  as  much  as  possible, 
teaches  little,  and  takes  time  from  lessons  and  disputations  to 
go  and  debate  at  meetings  on  the  affairs  of  the  community.  .  .  . 
And  while  the  elders  are  meeting  to  deliberate,  legislate,  and 
draw  up  regulations,  the  younger  generation  is  having  the  run 
of  the  gaming-houses.” 

Then  again,  the  rivalries  between  the  masters  :  quarrels 
between  schools,  theories,  influences.  “  The  crowing  of  the 
cock  heralds  the  day,”  again  says  Philip  de  Grève,  44  but  our 
cocks,  instead  of  announcing  the  dawn,  have  become  fighting 
cocks.  For  what  indeed  are  these  quarrels  between  masters  if 
not  cock-fights  ?...  We  have  become  the  laughing-stock 
of  the  laity.  The  cocks  bridle  up  and  bristle  against  one 
another  ;  they  devour  each  other’s  red  combs  and  cover  them¬ 
selves  with  blood.  ...” 

What  is  the  cause  of  these  quarrels  ?  Ambition,  pride. 
As  Ovid  says  : 

Immensum  gloria  calcar  habet. 

(Ambition  has  an  immense  spur.) 

To  get  together  a  great  number  of  pupils — this  is  the  pride 
of  the  masters.  They  use  persuasion  and  entreaty  ;  some  go 
so  far  as  to  pay  their  pupils.  Strange,  sensational  doctrines 
are  taught  to  attract  them  and  pique  their  interest.  The 
master’s  favourite  pupils  are  not  those  who  attend  most  assidu¬ 
ously  to  his  teaching,  but  those  who  are  clever  at  bringing 
him  others.  A  master  would  never  forgive  a  pupil  for  following 
other  courses  on  the  same  subject  concurrently  with  his,  how¬ 
ever  authoritative  their  delivery.  On  their  side  the  pupils  were 
not  always  swayed  by  the  most  scientific  motives.  Those  of 
Paris,  for  the  most  part  theologians,  sought  by  preference  the 
masters  whom  they  believed  influential  with  the  higher  clergy, 
with  regard  to  the  positions  they  hoped  to  attain  by  their 
mediation. 

The  mediaeval  Universities  were  not  richly  endowed.  They 
had  no  possessions  :  a  poverty  which  formed  their  strength 
in  their  struggles  against  the  Church  and  the  royal  power.  It 

o  209 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


was  easy  for  them  to  disperse  and  go  and  pitch  the  tents  of 
learning  in  some  other  district.  In  face  of  these  threats  of 
“  secession,”  how  often  did  not  their  adversaries  come  to  an 
agreement  !  Moreover,  the  expenses  which  the  University 
organization  had  to  face  were  of  the  smallest.  The  payments 
collected  on  the  conferring  of  degrees  sufficed  for  them. 

There  were  some  rich  students,  especially  among  those  who 
studied  canon  law.  They  were  seen  in  the  streets  preceded  by 
serving-men  carrying  great  volumes.  But  the  great  majority 
were  poor  fellows. 

For  the  sake  of  the  needy  students  there  were  set  up  from 
the  end  of  the  twelfth  century  special  houses  in  which  they 
found  food  and  shelter.  These  houses  grew  in  importance. 
They  are  to  be  endowed  with  revenues  which  will  go  on  in¬ 
creasing.  They  are  to  become  the  famous  44  colleges  ”  which 
play  so  large  a  part  in  the  life  of  the  mediaeval  University, 
while  they  come  to  modify  its  aspect  and  even  to  constitute 
the  University. 

The  earliest  of  these  foundations  was  set  up  by  a  burgess 
of  London  named  Joce,  who,  returning  from  the  Holy  Land, 
founded  at  the  Hôtel-Dieu  (the  principal  hospital)  in  Paris  a 
certain  number  of  beds  in  a  special  room,  destined  to  accom¬ 
modate  in  perpetuity  eighteen  scholars,  but  out  of  gratitude  for 
the  livelihood  thus  assured  to  them  they  watched  in  return  the 
hospital  dead  and  carried  the  cross  and  holy  water  at  funerals. 
Before  long  they  were  installed  in  a  house  of  their  own,  the 
44  College  of  the  Eighteen,”  near  the  Church  of  St.  Christopher. 
It  set  an  example.  In  1209  there  is  the  foundation  by  the 
widow  of  Stephen  Bérot,  of  the  College  St.  Honoré,  which 
takes  thirteen  students. 

On  the  other  hand,  one  sees  masters  and  students  in¬ 
stalling  themselves  in  common  in  big  houses  which  they  rent, 
living  together  and  sharing  expenses.  Through  this,  study 
became  more  assiduous.  Each  of  these  hostels  was  governed 
by  a  44  principal.”  The  colleges  of  which  we  have  spoken  were 
founded  with  a  charitable  intention.  Under  Saint  Louis, 
Robert  de  Sorbon  is  to  found  the  Sorbonne  College,  for  poor 
Masters  of  Arts  who  wished  to  pursue  their  studies  up  to  the 
doctorate  of  Theology.  We  know  what  it  has  become.  In 
210 


THE  UNIVERSITY 


the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  appeared  the  Colleges 
of  Harcourt  and  Navarre.  Students  found  in  these  not  only 
food  and  lodging  but  fine  libraries  and  masters  who  acted  as 
tutors.  These  were  houses  receiving  paying  members.  The 
44  collegiates  ”  enjoyed  such  advantages  that  they  came  to  be 
considered  better  than  the  free  students  who,  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  are  almost  regarded  as  suspicious  characters  under  the 
name  of  44  martinets  ”  (from  the  word  martin ,  a  bâton,  with 
which  they  were  said  to  be  too  often  armed).  The  transforma¬ 
tion  is  then  complete.  The  old  University,  free,  independent, 
without  fixed  abode  or  resources,  with  no  other  tie  than  the 
oath  which  united  its  numerous  members,  has  disappeared. 
Even  the  instruction  given  by  the  regents  of  the  Faculty  of 
Arts  is  given  up  in  favour  of  these  tutors  who  provide  private 
instruction  in  “  colleges  ”  and  44  hostels  ” — colleges  and  hostels 
the  union  of  which,  on  the  site  of  the  old  Latin  quarter,  the  rue 
du  Fouarre,  the  rue  de  Garlande,  the  rue  de  la  Harpe,  come 
to  constitute  the  University  itself.  The  great  Faculty  of 
Theology  is  not  ashamed  to  borrow  for  its  ceremonies  the 
buildings  of  the  Sorbonne  College. 

Such  was  the  character  and  development  of  the  University 
of  Paris.  In  the  year  1169,  Henry  II,  King  of  England,  in  his 
struggle  with  Thomas  Becket,  invoked  its  arbitration.  And 
this  prestige  will  go  on  increasing  until  the  day  when  it  will 
decay — into  a  disrepute  from  which  it  will  require  several 
centuries  to  recover — a  punishment  for  the  wretched  attitude 
which  the  University  of  Paris  takes  up  in  the  trial  of  Joan  of 
Arc. 

Sources. — Denifle  and  Châtelain,  Cartularium  Universitatis  Parisiensis , 
1889-96,  3  vols,  in  4  ;  Epistolarium  de  Ponce  le  Provençal ,  13th  century, 
Bibliothèque  de  l’Arsenal,  MS.  3807,  ff.  56-83. 

Historical  Works. — Ch.  Turot,  De  V organisation  de  renseignement 
dans  V  Université  de  Paris  au  Moyen  Age,  1850  ;  Al.  Budinsky,  Die  Uni- 
ver sitàt  Paris  und  die  Fremden  au  derselben  im  Mittelalter,  1876  ;  Denifle, 
Die  Universitaten  des  Mittelalter  s,  1885  ;  J.  A.  Clerval,  Les  Ecoles  de 
Chartres  au  Moyen  Age ,  Chartres,  1895  ;  by  the  same,  L'Enseignement  des 
arts  liberaux  à  Chartres  et  à  Paris  dans  la  lre  moitié  du  XIIIe  Siècle ,  1889  ; 
Leop.  Delisle,  “  Les  Ecoles  d’Orléans  au  XII0  et  XIIIe  Siècles,”  Ann. 
bull.  Soc.  hist,  de  Fr.,  vii.  139-54  ;  B.  Hauréau  in  the  Journal  des  Savants, 
1894  ;  Hastings  Rashdall,  The  Universities  of  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages , 

211 


( 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Oxford,  1895,  2  vols.  ;  Ch.  V.  Langlois,  “  Les  Universités  au  Moyen  Age,” 
Revue  de  Paris ,  15th  February  1896,  pp.  788-820 — a  study  remarkable 
in  its  brevity,  and  on  which  the  author  of  the  preceding  pages  has  especially 
drawn  ;  A.  Luchaire,  “  L’Université  de  Paris  sous  Philippe  Auguste,” 
Bulletin  intern,  de  V enseignement  supérieure ,  1899  ;  by  the  same,  La 
Société  française  au  temps  de  Philippe  Auguste ,  1899  ;  Ch.  Haskins,  “  The 
Life  of  the  Mediaeval  Students,”  American  Hist.  Review ,  iii.  (1898),  203-20  ; 
by  the  same,  “  The  University  of  Paris  in  the  Sermons  of  the  Thirteenth 
Century,”  ibid.  x.  (1904),  1-27. 


212 


CHAPTER  XI 


THE  CATHEDRALS 

The  Romanesque  style,  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries.  The  Gothic 
style  takes  its  rise  in  the  Ile-de-France  in  the  twelfth  century. 

The  greater  number  of  the  cathedrals  were  built  by  the  efforts 
of  the  bishops.  Popular  enthusiasm.  Æsthetic  elements  in  the 
Gothic  style  ;  the  pointed  arch,  the  arch  in  tierce-point,  the 
buttress.  The  decoration  of  the  Gothic  churches  is  a  means  of 
instruction  for  the  people.  The  sculptures.  The  stained-glass 
windows.  Artistic  and  literary  influence  of  France  on  the  Europe 

of  the  twelfth  century. 

AT  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century  the  chroniclers 
note  the  zeal  of  the  faithful  to  rebuild  the  churches 
in  a  new  style.  “  About  the  year  1002  or  1003,” 
writes  Raoul  le  Glabre,  “  people  began  everywhere  to  restore 
the  churches,  and  though  many  of  them  were  still  in  good 
condition,  they  vied  with  each  other  in  erecting  new  buildings, 
one  more  beautiful  than  the  other.  It  seemed  as  though  the 
world  were  throwing  off  its  decrepitude  to  clothe  itself  anew 
in  an  array  of  white  sanctuaries  ” — white  sanctuaries  on  whose 
pinnacles  already  shone,  with  its  golden  plumage,  the  Gallic 
cock. 

Nearly  all  the  episcopal  churches  were  rebuilt  at  this  time, 
a  great  number  of  the  conventual  churches,  and  even  the  rural 
chapels.  It  is  true  that  some  of  them  were  remarkably  small. 
We  know  through  the  letter  of  an  Archbishop  of  Aix  (eleventh 
century)  that  the  oratory  on  the  site  of  which  he  had  his 
cathedral  built,  could  hold  only  ten  worshippers  :  which  re¬ 
minds  one  of  the  most  frequented  Russian  churches  of  to-day. 

From  this  general  need  of  restoration  in  the  eleventh 
century  the  Romanesque  style  took  its  rise.  Attempts  had 
been  made  right  and  left  to  produce  structures  which  should 
transform  the  art  of  building.  The  comparative  peace  in- 

213 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


duced  by  the  Feudal  System  gave  it  its  impulse.  The  char¬ 
acteristic  mark  of  the  Romanesque  style  was  the  substitution 
of  vaults  of  stone  for  the  dressing  left  by  the  Romans,  i.e.  for 
flat  ceilings  of  timber  work  and  roofs  supported  on  string¬ 
courses.  The  lintel  of  the  basilicas  is  replaced  by  the  arch 
resting  on  columns.  It  was  a  change  which  soon  produced 
churches  with  several  stages  of  windows  in  place  of  the  Roman 
basilica  lighted  only  on  one  story. 

The  Romanesque  churches  have  still  a  squat  effect.  They 
stand  heavily  enough  at  the  farther  end  of  the  squares  orna¬ 
mented  with  quincunxes  ;  but  one  is  aware  in  them  of  a 
tremulous  desire  to  ascend.  The  arches  which  support  the 
vaults  relieve  the  wgTs,  which  soon  take  advantage  to  raise 
themselves  towards  heaven  in  a  transport  of  faith. 

The  Romanesque  style  had  its  cradle  in  the  centre  of  France 
and  in  Aquitaine,  in  Auvergne,  and  in  the  valleys  of  the  Saône 
and  the  Rhone,  where  it  reached  its  perfection  in  the  second 
half  of  the  eleventh  century. 

It  was  divided  into  two  schools. 

The  flat-roofed  basilicas  of  the  Romans,  similarly  modified, 
had  produced  in  Byzantium  since  the  sixth  century  the  churches 
with  cupolas  of  which  St.  Sofia  is  the  finest  example.  Their 
influence  had  been  felt  by  the  architects  of  Périgord,  where  it 
produced  the  famous  church  of  St.  Front  de  Perigueux  and 
other  churches  with  cupolas  in  the  surrounding  country  ;  while 
in  our  other  provinces  the  Romanesque  tendency  remained 
purely  French. 

At  the  same  period  in  which,  through  the  rise  of  the  vaults, 
the  Romanesque  style  was  forming,  stone  was  replacing  wood 
in  the  chief  buildings,  churches  and  castles,  episcopal  palaces 
and  hospitals. 

In  spite  of  this  transformation  there  remained  churches  and 
fortresses  built  of  wood  as  late  as  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth 
century. 

In  nearly  all  the  episcopal  cities  the  cathedrals  were  rebuilt, 
as  Raoul  le  Glabre  has  just  told  us  ;  but  it  was  above  all  the 
monastic  buildings,  the  churches  of  the  abbeys  and  monasteries, 
which,  during  the  eleventh  century,  were  to  give  a  magnificent 
impulse  to  the  Romanesque  style.  And  particularly  important 
214 


THE  CATHEDRALS 


was  the  stimulus  which  the  new  architecture  received  from  the 
Cluniac  Order,  whose  development  at  that  time  was  prodigious. 

The  basilica  of  Cluny,  vast  and  lofty,  with  its  five  naves 
and  its  five  towers,  was  one  of  the  finest  structures  ever  built. 
The  building  went  back  to  1089  ;  it  went  on  for  thirty  years. 
By  an  act  of  criminal  vandalism  for  which  the  governments  of 
the  Directory,  the  Consulate,  and  the  Empire  are  responsible, 
this  magnificent  masterpiece  and  testimony  to  the  genius  of 
our  ancestors  was  destroyed  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century. 

The  abbots  staked  their  self-respect  on  the  beauty  of  these 
buildings.  They  liked  their  names  to  be  associated  with  the 
opus  œdificale ,  the  work  of  construction.  Without  calling  in 
question  their  sincere  desire  to  raise  to  God  a  dwelling  befitting 
His  glory,  we  may  say  that  they  loved  the  edifice  which  was 
destined  to  exalt  their  memory  in  the  eyes  of  their  successors. 

The  bishops  of  the  eleventh,  and  then  of  the  twelfth  century, 
give  themselves  up  enthusiastically  to  the  same  tendency. 
They  are  seen  blindly  devoting  their  energy  and  their  resources 
to  the  building  of  cathedrals.  It  becomes  a  fever  ;  Pierre  le 
Chantre  calls  it  morbus  cedificandi,  the  building  fever.  We 
may  quote  Bishop  Fulbert  at  Chartres,  Geoffrey  de  Montbray 
at  Coutances,  Hildebert  de  Lavardin  at  Le  Mans,  Gerard  I 
de  Florines  and  Gerard  II  at  Cambrai,  and  then  Hugh  de 
Noyers  at  Auxerre  and  Maurice  de  Sully  at  Paris.  These 
churches  are  constructed  by  the  bishops  from  their  personal 
resources,  with  the  help  of  the  lords  who  make  a  point  of  helping 
them  in  their  pious  work,  and  with  the  co-operation  of  the 
faithful  for  whose  assistance  they  appeal.  They  are  great 
edifices  in  which  they  establish  the  see  of  their  fief.  For 
the  prelates  do  not  only  celebrate  there  the  divine  office.  They 
hold  their  courts  of  justice  and  pronounce  sentence  there. 

Robert  I,  Bishop  of  Coutances  (1025-48)  begins  the  con¬ 
struction  of  the  cathedral  with  the  assistance  of  Gonnar,  the 
second  wife  of  Richard  I,  Duke  of  Normandy,  and  with  that 
of  his  canons.  Hubert  de  Vendôme,  Bishop  of  Angers,  rebuilds, 
in  the  first  half  of  the  eleventh  century,  the  cathedral  of  St. 
Maurice,  with  the  assistance  of  his  parents.  Bishops  Walter 
Mortagne  and  Maurice  de  Sully  built,  the  one  the  cathedral  of 

215 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Laon,  the  other  Notre  Dame  at  Paris,  at  the  expense  of  their 
private  fortunes.  44  Maurice  de  Sully,”  says  a  contemporary, 
44  built  Notre  Dame  much  more  at  his  own  expense  than 
through  the  generosity  of  others.”  William  de  Seignelay  at 
Auxerre,  Stephen  Béquart  at  Sens,  Philip  de  Nemours  at 
Châlons-sur-Marne,  and  Raymond  de  Calmont  at  Rodez  do 
the  same.  The  church  of  Mende  is  due  to  the  initiative  of 
Pope  Urban  II,  a  native  of  that  diocese.  At  Chartres  bishops 
and  canons  devote  their  revenues  for  several  years  to  the 
building  of  the  cathedral.  At  Beauvais  too,  Bishop  Milo  de 
Châtillon-Nanteuil  and  his  canons  contribute  largely  to  the 
work  of  building.  Geoffrey  I  of  Montbray  goes  to  Calabria 
to  Robert  Guiscard  to  get  money  for  the  church  of  Coutances. 
He  brings  back  gold,  silver,  precious  stones,  and  rich  stuffs  as 
presents  from  the  famous  Norman  leader  and  his  comrades. 
He  was  not  content  to  build  the  church  with  the  three  towers, 
but  he  furnished  it  with  ecclesiastical  ornaments,  with  tapestries 
for  the  walls,  with  carpets  and  precious  manuscripts.  He 
attached  to  it  choristers  and  a  school,  as  well  as  goldsmiths, 
stained-glass  workers,  an  iron  worker,  carpenters,  a  master- 
mason,  and  sculptors  for  the  permanent  works.  The  building 
was  begun  in  1056. 

A  great  church  thus  became,  like  the  castle,  the  centre  of  a 
manufacturing  activity,  vivified  by  the  flocking  of  the  faithful 
and  of  the  pilgrims  who  came  to  venerate  the  relics.  Besides 
the  schools  attached  to  it,  the  families  of  the  workmen  settled 
there.  The  labour  necessitated  by  the  cathedral  life  was  great 
and  continual.  It  formed  the  44  people  of  the  work  ”  (gens  de 
V œuvre).  A  valuable  light  is  thrown  on  the  life  of  the  artisans 
encrusted  at  the  foot  of  the  cathedrals,  by  Leger,  Archbishop 
of  Vienne.  He  relates,  in  1050,  that  one  of  his  flock,  a  doctor 
named  Ato,  had  improved  and  adorned,  in  the  cloisters  of  his 
church,  the  little  dwellings  (doinunculœ),  in  which  lived  the 
women  employed  for  the  weaving  of  cloth  of  gold  for  the  divine 
services.  The  canons,  under  the  bishop’s  direction,  were  con¬ 
cerned  with  the  building,  the  administration  of  which  was 
very  complicated  ;  and  sometimes  the  best  artisans  are  re¬ 
cruited  from  their  ranks,  as  at  Auxerre,  where  during  the  reign 
of  Henry  I,  Bishop  Geoffrey  of  Champallement  institutes 
216 


THE  CATHEDRALS 


prebends  for  some  ecclesiastics,  one  of  whom  is  an  “  admirable 
goldsmith,”  another  a  “  clever  painter,”  and  the  third  an 
intelligent  worker  in  stained  glass.  At  Avignon,  the  Chapter 
includes  masters  qualified  to  teach  the  art  of  design. 

We  must  then  abandon  the  theory  of  Viollet-le-Duc  that 
the  great  churches  were  the  manifestation  of  a  lay  art  created 
by  the  impulse  of  the  communal  movement,  the  symbol  of 
popular  liberty,  against  the  seigniorial  stronghold. 

Doubtless  from  the  thirteenth  century  onwards,  the  monu¬ 
ments  of  religion  served  as  meeting- places  for  the  burgesses. 
The  vaults  resounded  with  their  declarations  of  their  rights. 
They  had  markets  there  ;  we  should  say  now  that  they  served 
as  exchanges.  Feasts  were  held  there  which  were  far  from 
being  religious  celebrations.  Even  councils  of  war  were  held 
there,  in  which  military  expeditions,  in  which  the  burgesses 
would  be  called  to  take  part,  were  discussed.  Treaties  were 
signed  there.  Doubtless  too,  from  the  middle  of  the  eleventh 
century  the  architects,  monks,  and  clerks  are  frequently 
replaced  by  laymen.  The  master-masons,  the  corporations 
of  artisans  who  work  on  the  buildings,  are  laymen.  But  the 
bishops  and  his  canons  are  none  the  less  the  promoters  of  the 
work  ;  from  them  comes  the  inspiration  and  it  is  under  their 
direction.  Without  them  the  work  would  not  be  done.  It 
must  be  said  too  that  the  prelates  were  helped  in  every  way, 
if  only  by  the  confraternities  of  peace  which  contributed  to 
the  building,  the  repairs,  and  the  decoration  of  the  church. 

At  the  time  when  the  Abbey  Church  of  St.  Remy  at  Reims 
was  built,  through  the  efforts  of  Abbots  Aicard  and  Thierry 
(1003-49),  members  of  the  familia  ecclesiastica ,  i.e.  the  vassals 
of  the  abbey,  gave  their  voluntary  help.  We  see  them  on  the 
steep  roads  perched  on  long  wagons  drawn  by  strings  of  red 
oxen,  carting  building  materials.  Donations  flow  in  from  all 
sides.  They  come  from  the  royal  coffers  :  Louis  VII  makes 
a  present  of  two  hundred  pounds  to  the  church  of  Notre  Dame 
in  Paris.  Offerings  come  from  the  humblest  sources.  They 
made  use  of  the  results  of  collections  during  church  services, 
as  in  our  own  day.  The  granting  of  indulgences,  which  was 
to  become  later  a  source  of  abuse,  secured  a  good  deal  of  money. 
Finally,  appreciable  sums  were  furnished  by  the  exposition  of 

217 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


relics  which  the  canons  took  in  musical  processions  through 
the  countryside.  Around  the  reliquaries  minstrels  sang  moving 
poems  ;  after  which  the  collection  was  made. 

For  the  building  of  the  church  of  Soissons,  Countess  Adelaide 
allowed  the  wood  necessary  for  the  carpentry  to  be  taken  from 
her  forests  ;  still  more,  she  provided  wood  already  cut  and 
prepared.  Elsewhere  the  owners  of  quarries  allowed  them  to 
be  drawn  upon  for  the  stone  needed.  For  the  most  part  these 
immense  stones  were  carved  in  the  quarry  itself,  into  square 
blocks,  or  into  shafts  or  the  bases  of  columns,  or  capitals  accord¬ 
ing  to  designs  furnished  by  the  architects,  and  afterwards 
taken  away  on  heavy  wagons  drawn  by  many  yokes  of  oxen  : 
thirteen  pairs,  twenty-six  oxen  says  the  author  of  the  Miracles 
of  Ste.  Foi  in  speaking  of  the  building  of  a  church  in  Rouergue 
(middle  of  the  eleventh  century). 

How  shall  we  describe  the  enthusiasm  of  the  multitude 
when  they  saw, 

Kneeling  afar  off  in  their  robes  of  stone, 

the  dwellings  destined  for  God  ? 

4 4  A  spectacle  wonderful  to  behold,  incredible  to  relate,”  we 
read  in  the  chronicles  of  the  Abbots  of  St.  Trond,  44  these 
multitudes  who,  so  zealously  and  joyfully,  brought  the  stones, 
lime,  sand,  and  wood  necessary  for  the  work  ;  night  and  day 
in  carts  at  their  own  expense.  As  large  stones  were  not  found 
in  the  district  they  brought  them  from  distant  parts.  The 
shafts  of  columns  came  from  Worms  in  boats  which  came  down 
the  Rhine  as  far  as  Cologne,  whence  they  were  carted  from 
village  to  village,  without  the  help  of  oxen  or  mules,  dragged 
by  men’s  arms.  They  took  them  across  the  Meuse  without 
any  bridge,  by  means  of  ropes  tied  to  them  ;  and  so  materials 
come  to  us  to  the  sound  of  canticles.” 

The  letter  addressed,  in  1115,  by  Abbot  Haimon  to  the 
religious  of  Tutbury,  in  England,  has  remained  famous.  It  is 
speaking  of  the  church  of  St.  Pierre-sur-Dives  : 

44  Who  has  ever  seen  or  heard  the  like  ?  Princes,  powerful 
and  wealthy  men,  men  of  noble  birth,  proud  and  beautiful 
women,  bent  their  necks  to  the  yoke  of  the  carts  which  carried 
the  stones,  wood,  wine,  corn,  oil,  lime,  everything  necessary 
218 


THE  CATHEDRALS 


for  the  building  of  the  church  and  the  support  of  those  working 
at  it.  One  saw  as  many  as  a  thousand  people,  men  and  women, 
attached  to  the  reins  drawing  a  wagon  so  heavy  was  its 
burden,  and  a  profound  silence  reigned  among  the  crowd 
pressing  forward  with  difficulty,  in  the  emotion  which  filled 
their  hearts.” 

44  At  the  head  of  the  long  procession,  minstrels  of  the 
highest  sounded  their  brazen  trumpets,  and  the  sacred  banners 
in  their  brilliant  colours  swayed  in  the  wind.  Nothing  proved 
an  obstacle.  The  ruggedness  of  the  mountains,  the  depth 
of  the  streams,  the  waves  of  the  sea  at  Sainte  Marie  du  Pont 
(the  mouth  of  the  Orne)  could  not  delay  the  march.  To  the 
carts  there  were  yoked  even  old  men,  bent  under  the  weight 
of  their  years  ;  and  children  tied  to  the  reins  had  no  need  to 
stoop  :  they  could  march  upright  under  the  traces. 

44  When  they  had  arrived  near  the  foundations  of  the 
church  the  carts  were  drawn  up  round  it  as  on  the  borders  of 
a  camp.  From  dusk  to  dawn  the  sound  of  hymns  arose.  The 
carts  were  emptied  by  the  ruddy  light  of  the  torches  and  during 
that  night  many  miracles  took  place  :  the  blind  recovered 
their  sight  ;  the  paralytic  began  to  walk.” 

The  impulse  of  faith  here  described  is  that  of  the  twelfth 
century,  from  which  are  to  spring  the  Gothic  churches,  a  move¬ 
ment  of  a  still  greater  amplitude  and  strength  than  that  of 
the  eleventh  century,  which  had  produced  the  Romanesque 
churches.  It  began  round  about  1130.  It  was  at  work  most 
especially  in  Northern  France,  and  became  more  marked  in 
the  course  of  the  twelfth  century.  It  developed  a  peculiar 
intensity  during  the  reigns  of  Louis  VII  and  Philip  Augustus, 
when  it  became  prodigious.  There  were  very  few  cities,  to 
the  north  of  the  Loire  at  least,  which  did  not  then  undertake, 
on  the  most  magnificent  scale,  the  rebuilding  of  the  dwelling 
of  the  Lord. 

It  is  doubtless  from  this  period  that  a  proverb  dates,  which 
we  have  picked  up  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine.  They  say  there 
of  a  man  who  is  very  happy  :  44  Es  geht  ihm  so  gut  wie  dem 
lieben  Gott  in  Frankreich  ”  (His  affairs  succeed  as  well  as  those 
of  the  good  God  in  France). 

The  cathedral  of  Noyon,  rebuilt  through  the  efforts  of 

2X9 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Bishop  Baldwin  of  Flanders,  is  completed  in  1167.  At 
Chartres,  after  the  burning  of  the  Romanesque  church,  Bishop 
Renaud  de  Monçon  begins  the  splendid  edifice  which  is  our 
admiration  to-day.  In  1220  its  vaults  were  almost  com¬ 
pletely  finished  ;  the  principal  rose  window  was  in  its  place. 
The  roof  of  the  church  reminds  William  le  Breton  of  the  shell 
of  a  great  tortoise  :  “  Behold  it,”  he  says,  “  rising  from  the 
ground,  new,  gleaming  with  sculpture,  an  unrivalled  master¬ 
piece.”  The  royal  cathedral — Reims — with  its  lofty  crown  of 
stones,  is  begun  in  1211  by  Archbishop  Aubri  de  Humbert. 
The  foundations  of  the  Cathedral  of  Auxerre  are  laid  in  1215 
by  William  de  Seignelay.  And  these  same  bishops  who  re¬ 
garded  themselves,  in  accordance  with  an  ancient  tradition,  as 
the  heads  of  the  city,  had  sometimes,  as  at  Cambrai,  work  done 
on  the  fortifications  of  the  town. 

The  Abbot  of  Mont  St.  Michel,  the  famous  Robert  of  Torigni, 
himself  a  marvellous  builder,  said  in  speaking  of  Notre  Dame 
in  Paris,  the  choir  of  which  was  consecrated  in  1181  :  4 4  When 
this  building  is  finished  there  will  be  no  work  to  compare  with 
it.” 

We  have  said  that  its  building,  contemporaneous  with  the 
reign  of  Philip  Augustus,  was  due  to  Bishop  Maurice  of  Sully, 
who  devoted  his  fortune  to  it.  The  cathedral  of  Laon,  begun 
in  1170  by  Bishop  Walter  of  Mortagne,  preserves  the  rough  and 
savage  character  of  the  soldier  burgesses  we  tried  to  portray 
in  speaking  of  the  communal  movement.  Its  outline  reminds 
one  of  a  fortress  rather  than  of  the  joyous  churches  of  the 
epoch  in  which  it  was  built.  It  stands  on  the  top  of  the  hill, 
whence  it  gives  the  impression  of  a  feudal  edifice.  One  would 
have  thought — in  the  days  before  the  hideous  Boches  had  over¬ 
run  the  district — that  the  same  hands  had  built  the  cathedral 
of  Laon  and  the  neighbouring  castle  of  Coucy.  44  Nowhere 
did  ancient  France  appear  in  such  majesty  :  it  is  that  fine 
Gothic  of  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century  with  which  nothing 
can  compare  unless  it  be  Greek  Art  ”  (Emile  Mâle). 

The  apse  of  Soissons  Cathedral  was  completed  in  1212. 

The  new  style  in  which  these  churches  were  built  has  been 
termed  the  44  Gothic  ”  style  ;  an  expression  which  Raphael 
seems  to  have  been  the  first  to  apply  to  it.  It  was  used  again  by 
220 


THE  CATHEDRALS 


Vasari  in  his  famous  history  of  Italian  Art.  Through  him  it 
became  general.  44  Gothic  ”  in  the  mouth  of  Raphael  signified 
“  barbarous,”  as  it  does  still  under  the  pen  of  Molière  when  he 
treats  of  the  44  Gothic  ornaments  ”  : 

Those  hateful  monsters  of  the  centuries  of  ignorance 
Which  the  tides  of  barbarism  have  produced. 

The  term  has  been  kept  since,  although  used  in  a  different 
sense  ;  it  has  seemed  convenient.  The  correct  expression  to 
characterize  this  style  would  be  44  French  Architecture.”  For 
it  is  the  French  style  par  excellence.  Just  as  the  Romanesque 
took  its  rise  in  the  eleventh  century  in  the  centre  of  France  and 
in  Aquitaine  from  the  development  of  the  architectural  style 
of  the  Romans,  so  the  Gothic  style  rose  in  the  north  of  France, 
in  the  twelfth  century,  from  the  development  of  the  Roman¬ 
esque  style.  It  is  the  style  of  the  Ile-de-France,  whence  it 
spread  later,  with  the  development  of  the  royal  power,  over 
the  rest  of  the  country,  and  from  France  over  Europe.  Richard 
of  Dietenheim  in  the  thirteenth  century  brings  an  architect 
from  France  to  rebuild  the  Church  of  St.  Peter,  at  Wimpfen, 
in  the  new  style — the  new  style  which  is  described  by  those 
who  drew  up  the  charter  as  opus  francigenam,  the  French  style  : 
44  .  .  .  accito  peritissimo  in  architectoria  arte  latomo,  qui  tunc 
noviter  de  villa  Parisiensi  e  partibus  venerat  Franciæ,  opere 
francigeno ,  basilicam  ex  sedis  lapidibus  construi  jubet.”  In 
Italy  the  Romanesque  still  prevails  in  the  buildings  of  John 
of  Pisa  at  a  period  when  Gothic  flourished  everywhere  in  our 
own  land. 

The  Gothic  style  is  characterized  by  its  aspiration  towards 
clearness,  light,  joy.  Huysmans  called  it  44  the  unfolding  of 
the  soul.”  Walls  are  seen  rising  higher  and  higher  and  per¬ 
forated  more  and  more  with  window  spaces.  And  thus  are 
achieved  those  perfect  and  exquisite  works  of  French  Art, 
the  Sainte  Chapelle  and  the  Cathedral  of  Metz,  which  seem  to 
be  altogether  made  up  of  stained  glass. 

Hugh  de  Noyers,  we  read  in  the  chronicles  of  the  bishops 
of  Auxerre,  had  the  windows  and  stained  glass  of  his  church 
enlarged  so  that  the  building  which,  after  the  manner  of  the 
old  churches,  was  dark,  shone  with  a  great  transparency. 

221 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Girard  II,  Bishop  of  Cambrai,  likewise  “  lengthened  ”  the 
windows,  which  were  “  too  short,”  says  his  biographer,  to  give 
more  light  to  the  house  of  God. 

Higher  vaults  and  larger  walls  were  then  necessary,  but 
these,  pierced  with  larger  and  more  numerous  bays,  offered 
less  resistance  to  the  weight  of  the  roof.  From  this  came  the 
Gothic  style.  And  first  of  all  the  ogive,  an  expression  which 
indicates  not  the  broken  arch,  the  arch  in  tierce-point  which 
succeeded  the  semicircular  arch,  but  the  arches  intersecting 
in  crosses  thrown  on  to  each  bay  and  increasing  (Latin,  augere) 
the  power  of  resistance  in  the  vault.  The  word  ogive  or  augive 
signified  “  support  ”  :  “  it  is  easy  to  build,  it  is  light,  for  all 
its  weight  falls,  not  on  the  walls,  but  on  the  intersections  of  the 
ogives  ;  it  is  solid,  and  if,  by  chance,  it  is  distorted,  it  does 
not  give  way  altogether,  as  the  four  compartments  are  in¬ 
dependent.” 

These  four  arches  which  sustain  the  vault  throw  their 
weight  on  four  points  of  support,  the  resistance  of  which  is 
increased  by  buttresses.  Such  is  the  principle  of  Gothic.  The 
broken  arch  ( arc  brisé )  itself,  miscalled  the  ogival  arch,  is  in¬ 
spired  by  the  same  idea  :  to  increase  its  power  of  resistance 
against  the  horizontal  thrust  of  the  vaults.  Far  from  being 
an  essential  mark  of  the  Gothic  style,  the  arch  in  tierce-point, 
the  ogival  arch,  is,  as  one  sees,  only  an  accessory.  It  might 
be  called  an  accident  of  construction. 

And  its  beauty  lies  precisely  in  the  fact  that  it  was  intro¬ 
duced  not  through  an  aesthetic  motive,  not  because,  as  has 
been  said,  the  eye  had  become  used  to  the  ogival  form  in  the 
intersection  of  semicircular  arches,  but  by  very  necessity,  the 
technical  needs  of  the  construction,  whence  its  harmony  with 
the  general  effect  of  the  building. 

Finally,  the  buttresses — the  third  of  the  essential  marks  of 
the  Gothic  style — also  rose  from  the  same  cause  :  the  need  of 
supporting  and  reinforcing  the  walls  against  the  thrust  of  the 
vaults,  walls  rising  higher  and  higher  and  pierced  more  and 
more  with  rose  windows  and  brilliant  stained-glass,  which  they 
aspired  to  make  high  and  higher  still,  resplendent  with  light 
and  colour.  Such  is  the  skeleton  of  the  Gothic  building  :  the 
vault  constructed  on  four  projecting  ribs — the  ogives — which 
222 


THE  CATHEDRALS 


carry  the  thrusts  to  the  four  corners  on  to  supports  reinforced 
and  sustained  by  the  buttresses. 

And  thus  is  seen  at  a  glance  the  progress  made  in  building 
since  the  time  of  the  Greek  temples.  These  latter  can  not 
only  have  but  one  story,  but  they  cannot  support  any  weight. 
The  Romans  make  some  progress.  Thanks  to  the  arcade  the 
upper  part  of  their  buildings  can  have  more  weight,  but  the 
power  they  have  introduced  into  building  is  still  imprisoned 
in  the  lintel  which  they  have  from  the  imitation  of  Greek  Art. 
The  Romanesque  architects  emancipate  themselves  from  the 
lintel  :  they  impose  the  arcade  on  columns.  They  create 
the  vault  which  gives  to  their  edifice  a  power  of  resistance 
unknown  before  their  time  ;  but  they  are  still  subject,  in  imi¬ 
tation  of  the  Romans,  to  the  superposition  of  orders.  On 
the  abacus  of  the  columns  which  surround  the  nave,  other 
columns  rise  up  to  the  springing  of  the  vaults  which  they 
support.  The  Gothic  architects  at  last  invent  clusters  of 
columns  springing  from  a  single  shaft  from  the  ground  to  the 
roof. 

Add  to  this  the  force  they  have  found  in  the  ogives,  in  the 
arch  in  tierce-point,  and  in  the  buttresses  ;  and  we  shall  have 
assembled  the  principles  of  their  art. 

From  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  date  of  the  rise 
of  Gothic  architecture,  the  arches  of  religious  edifices  are 
becoming  more  and  more  pointed  ;  but  this  transition  from 
the  Romanesque  to  the  Gothic  is  not  abrupt.  In  the  Ile-de- 
France  and  the  neighbouring  regions  one  style  succeeds  in¬ 
sensibly  to  the  other.  Between  the  Abbey  of  the  men  of  Caen, 
pure  Romanesque  on  one  side  and  on  the  other  Gothic  in  its 
fullest  development — the  Cathedral  of  Reims,  for  instance — 
there  is  a  whole  series  of  monuments  which  merge  into 
one  another,  without  it  being  possible  to  mark  by  a  precise 
border-line  the  division  between  the  two  styles.  One  cannot 
then,  at  least  in  the  region  of  its  origin,  the  Ile-de-France, 
the  heart  of  the  royal  domain  (including  Valois,  the  province 
of  Beauvais,  the  Vexin,  the  region  of  Paris,  a  part  of  the  country 
round  Soissons),  isolate  the  art  of  the  ogive  from  that  of  the 
semicircular  arch,  for  it  developed  insensibly  from  it.  And 
it  will  be  seen  that  it  was  with  the  monarchy  as  with  the  French 

223 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


language  itself — the  language  of  the  Ile-de-France — and  with 
the  epics  that  the  Gothic  style,  the  French  style,  was  to  progress. 
You  will  not  find  Gothic,  in  its  beginnings,  in  Flemish  Flanders, 
nor  in  Lorraine  or  Alsace  or  Brittany,  nor  in  Languedoc  ;  nor 
à  fortiori  in  Germany,  Italy,  or  Spain.  To  these  countries 
the  Gothic  comes  fully  formed.  Between  the  Church  of  St. 
Géréon  at  Cologne,  full  Romanesque,  and  the  famous  cathedral 
of  that  city,  which  is  of  a  pointed  Gothic,  you  would  not  find 
in  the  district  any  transition.  Moreover,  France  had  already 
more  than  a  century  before  produced  some  masterpieces  of 
Gothic,  the  Abbey  Church  of  Morienval,  St.  Etienne  at  Beauvais, 
Notre  Dame  at  Senlis,  and  the  Abbey  Church  of  St.  Denis 
(this  last  begun  in  1143),  when  the  foundations  of  the  Cathedral 
of  Cologne  were  laid  on  the  plan  of  Amiens. 

So  completely  were  contemporaries  won  over  by  the  new 
style  of  building  that  bishops  and  lords  were  seen  destroying 
the  old  churches  in  the  Romanesque  style,  and  often  splendidly 
built,  to  raise  churches  corresponding  to  the  aspirations  of  their 
own  time. 

At  Paris  Maurice  de  Sully  had  a  Romanesque  church  which 
was  dedicated  to  Our  Lady  and  only  went  back  to  the  reign  of 
Louis  le  Gros,  what  we  should  have  called  a  new  church,  rased 
to  the  ground.  At  Laon  the  church  demolished  in  1170  by 
order  of  Bishop  Gautier  de  Mortagne  for  the  construction  of 
the  new  cathedral  was  only  fifty-six  years  old. 

Contrary  to  general  opinion,  these  buildings  were  achieved 
with  great  rapidity.  The  work  was  immense,  and  it  seemed  as 
though  one  saw  the  stones,  already  cut  and  chiselled,  come  and 
place  themselves  on  one  another  and  up  to  unknown  heights 
to  the  sound  of  hymns,  44  as  were  built  the  walls  of  Thebes  to 
the  strains  of  Amphion’s  lyre.” 

Notre  Dame,  the  Cathedral  of  Paris,  founded  in  1168,  sees 
its  choir  finished  in  1196  ;  in  1220  it  was  completed.  Imagine 
the  vastness  of  the  work  :  the  infinite  detail  of  the  sculptures. 
The  Sainte  Chapelle  was  entirely  built  in  eight  years.  And 
one  must  remember  the  means  of  construction  then  in  vogue. 
Our  mechanical  processes  were  unknown,  as  also  was  the 
rapid  use  of  reinforced  concrete.  It  is  true  that  some  churches 
begun  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  were  completed 
224 


THE  CATHEDRALS 


only  in  the  fourteenth  or  fifteenth  century.  This  was  because 
the  work  was  interrupted  by  political  events,  local  troubles, 
or  for  the  want  of  money. 

As  to  the  artists  who  raised  these  great  monuments,  the 
most  beautiful  in  which  human  genius  may  glory,  in  spite  of 
the  lowliness  of  their  condition  through  which  they  were 
described  as  44  master-masons,”  or,  at  the  most,  as  44  masters 
of  the  work,”  the  name  of  some  of  them  have  been  preserved. 
Pierre  de  Montreuil  produced  from  his  genius  the  basilica  of 
St.  Denis  ;  William  of  Sens  drew  the  plans  of  the  cathedral 
of  that  town  and  presided  over  its  construction  (twelfth  century). 
He  was  afterwards  summoned  to  England,  where  he  rebuilt, 
according  to  a  new  plan,  Canterbury  Cathedral.  To  Jean 
Langlois  we  owe  that  miracle,  St.  Urbain  of  Troyes.  Jean 
d’Orbais  and,  after  him,  Robert  de  Coucy,  conceived  the  mag¬ 
nificent  cathedral  of  Reims  (Robert  de  Coucy  is  the  architect 
of  the  towers).  Robert  de  Luzarches  drew  the  plans  of  Amiens 
Cathedral.  To  Jean  de  Chelles  we  owe  the  transept  of  Notre 
Dame  of  Paris,  and  the  architect,  Villard  de  Honnecourt  (district 
of  Cambrai),  after  having  built  the  choir  of  the  Cathedral  of 
Cambrai,  went  to  introduce  his  art  into  Hungary. 

The  master  of  the  work  generally  lived  at  the  foot  of  the 
cathedral,  where,  under  heavy  awnings  of  grey  canvas,  he  had 
established  his  workshop,  his  44  lodge  ”  ( loge ),  to  use  the  expres¬ 
sion  of  the  time.  It  was  a  little  city  of  workmen  governed  by 
the  architect,  paid  and  supported  according  to  accounts  kept 
by  the  clerks  of  the  church.  There  lived  under  a  common 
authority  the  various  artisans  of  the  work,  from  the  masons 
and  carpenters,  to  plumbers,  painters,  and  workers  in  stained 
glass.  They  laboured  in  closed  workshops  heated  in  winter. 

The  most  important  room  in  the  44  lodge  ”  was  the  44  design 
room  ”  ( chambre  aux  traits ),  in  which  the  master  of  the  work 
drew  his  plans,  and  made  light  wooden  models  of  the  various 
parts  of  the  building.  These  plans  or  models  were  known  as 
the  44  molles.” 

How  were  these  great  artists  paid  ?  A  contract  made  in 
1261  with  Martin  de  Lonay  by  the  Abbot  of  St.  Gilles  in 
Languedoc  for  the  completion  of  the  abbey  church  gives  us 
some  information  on  the  subject.  Martin  is  to  receive  yearly 

p  225 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


100  pounds  of  Tours  (about  20,000  francs  now)  for  himself 
and,  doubtless,  for  his  assistants.  He  is  to  have  besides  2 
sous  (20  francs  now)  each  working  day  ;  and  the  right  to  take 
his  meals  at  the  Abbot’s  table  except  on  days  of  abstinence, 
when  he  will  eat  in  the  kitchen,  where  the  cook  will  serve  him 
with  a  portion  one  and  a  half  times  that  of  a  monk.  His  horse 
will  be  stabled  at  the  abbey.  On  the  other  hand,  we  find  that 
the  architects  of  the  Dukes  of  Burgundy  and  the  Counts  of 
Poitiers  formed  part  of  their  households  by  the  same  right  as 
their  painters  and  miniaturists.  In  this  capacity  they  received 
a  robe  each  year,  as  also  did  their  wives,  and  wages  amount¬ 
ing  to  10  pounds  (2000  francs)  annually  at  the  Burgundian 
Court  and  6  pounds  (1200  francs)  at  that  of  the  Count  of  Poitiers. 

The  monuments  which  these  artists  conceived,  and  so 
magnificently  executed,  were  adapted  to  the  soil  on  which 
they  stood,  to  the  climate,  to  the  scenes  of  Nature  which  sur¬ 
rounded  them,  to  the  habits  and  needs  of  the  men  for  whom 
they  were  made.  The  incongruity  in  modern  towns  has  often 
been  pointed  out  of  monuments  constructed  in  imitation  of 
antiquity.  Look  at  the  Madeleine  in  Paris.  Can  one  imagine 
that  this  edifice  has  been  built  by  the  same  men  who  live  in  the 
neighbouring  houses,  when  the  stages  of  these  houses  are  about 
as  high  as  one  of  its  capitals  ?  The  proportions  of  the  monu¬ 
ments  of  antiquity  were  admissible  in  Greece,  where  they  were 
of  small  dimensions.  Modern  architects  who  have  sought 
inspiration  in  them  have  multiplied  them  three,  four,  five 
times  in  every  part,  and  this  has  made  them  disproportionate 
to  the  men  who  are  to  use  them,  and  to  the  surrounding 
dwellings. 

The  Gothic  architects,  on  the  contrary,  according  to  the 
luminous  observation  of  Viollet-le-Duc  and  of  Lassus,  far  from 
seeking,  like  the  imitators  of  the  antique,  relative  proportion, 
have  sought  human  proportion  :  they  mean  that  the  proportions 
of  the  monuments  which  they  built  are  always  calculated  in 
relation  to  man.  Bases,  capitals,  colonnettes,  mullions,  ribs, 
and  mouldings  are  of  the  same  dimensions  in  the  case  of  a  big 
church  or  a  little,  of  a  cathedral  or  an  oratory,  because  in  both 
cases  man  is  taken  as  the  point  of  comparison.  But  in  big 
churches  the  number  of  these  things  is  increased  ;  the  number 
226 


THE  CATHEDRALS 


of  curves  and  mouldings  is  greater  in  a  big  church  in  proportion 
to  the  greater  weight  of  the  vaults  which  they  have  to  bear, 
and  likewise  the  number  of  mullions  in  proportion  to  the  larger 
windows.  Columns  are  lengthened  or  shortened,  their  diameter 
increased  or  decreased,  but  the  capitals  and  the  bases  maintain 
the  same  height.  Ornaments  will  enter  in  greater  or  less 
number  into  the  decoration  of  the  balustrades  which  run  along 
the  spring  of  the  roofs,  but  the  height  of  these  balustrades  will 
not  vary,  any  more  than  the  dimensions  of  the  ornaments 
themselves. 

Thus  the  Gothic  church,  whatever  its  dimensions,  will 
remain  always  living,  in  harmony  with  the  surroundings  for 
which  it  has  been  made,  in  harmony  with  the  men  who  are  to 
come  to  pray  in  it.  It  will  adapt  itself  always,  and  in  the  most 
charming  way,  to  the  buildings  which  surround  it  and  among 
which  it  seems  to  have  sprung  spontaneously  as  the  tree  in  the 
forest  has  sprung  from  the  same  soil  as  the  green  plants  which 
flourish  in  its  shade.  On  the  contrary,  the  building  imitated 
from  the  antique  suffers  from  surroundings  with  which  it  is 
incongruous,  which  it  overpowers,  and  by  which  it  is  itself  made 
hideous. 

To  the  justice  of  these  principles  one  must  add  a  mar¬ 
vellous  knowledge  of  technique.  The  carpenterings  of  the 
Gothic  architects  are  masterpieces.  And  see  the  way  in  which 
they  arrange  the  draining  away  of  water.  The  watercourses, 
openly  exposed,  are  easy  to  clean.  The  pipes  lead  methodically 
one  into  another  up  to  the  buttresses,  the  line  of  which  they 
follow,  terminated  by  those  picturesque  gargoyles  which  spit 
the  rain  far  from  the  walls  into  the  street  gutters. 

And  the  most  beautiful  feature  of  a  Gothic  church  is  per¬ 
haps  its  ornamentation.  The  Ancients,  Greeks  or  Romans, 
had  adopted  the  principle  of  unity  in  uniformity  ;  the 
Gothicists  discovered  the  formula  infinitely  more  fruitful,  of 
variety  in  unity.  On  the  walls  of  a  Greek  or  Roman  temple, 
from  base  to  summit  everything  is  continuous  ;  one  line  is 
followed.  With  Gothic  buildings,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  the 
ensemble  which  gives  the  impression  of  a  perfect  harmony,  while 
their  details  are  as  varied,  spontaneous,  and  free  as  possible. 
Hence  that  impression  of  life  produced  by  mediaeval  buildings. 

227 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Let  us  add  that  the  ornamentation  of  a  Greek  or  Roman  build¬ 
ing  is  on  plates  fixed  on  various  parts  of  the  monument  which 
do  not  seem  to  demand  them  naturally,  while  in  Gothic  build¬ 
ings  the  ornamentation  is  suggested  by  the  very  elements  of 
the  construction.  It  responds  to  the  ideals,  the  beliefs  of  the 
time.  It  is  at  the  same  time  a  symbol  and  a  method  of  in¬ 
struction.  Everything  in  it  is  fixed  by  traditional  rules,  of  the 
meaning  of  which  no  one  is  at  this  time  ignorant,  of  which 
every  one  has  knowledge — a  knowledge  of  which  the  artists 
constitute  themselves  the  interpreters. 

The  churches  are  orientated  from  east  to  west.  On  the 
western  façade  is  sculptured  the  representation  of  the  Last 
Judgment,  which  will  be  lighted  up  in  the  evening  hours,  as  in  a 
luminous  symbol,  by  the  flaming  orange  of  the  setting  sun.  It 
has  been  remarked  that  a  number  of  the  churches  of  the  time, 
and  some  of  the  best  built,  like  Notre  Dame  in  Paris,  possessed  a 
choir  which  swerved  more  or  less  markedly  from  the  axis.  In 
some  the  deviation  is  very  much  accentuated,  to  mark,  it  is 
said,  the  bending  of  the  Head  of  Christ  dying  on  the  Cross. 
And  some  eminent  archaeologists  have  gone  so  far  as  to  ask 
whether  the  little  door  opened  in  the  side  of  Notre  Dame  in 
Paris — the  44  red  door  ” — was  not  there  to  represent  the  wound 
made  by  the  lance  in  the  Side  of  the  Divine  Martyr. 

The  multitude  knew  that  the  lion  represents  the  Resur¬ 
rection,  because  lion  cubs,  issuing  without  life  from  the  mother, 
become  animate  only  on  the  third  day  through  a  breath  of  their 
father.  They  knew  that  the  little  figures  of  naked  infants  on 
the  folds  of  Abraham’s  cloak  represented  the  future  life,  and 
that  a  hand  issuing  from  the  clouds  with  a  gesture  of  blessing 
is  the  image  of  Providence.  If  a  head  is  surrounded  by  a 
cruciform  nimbus  they  see  in  it  one  of  the  Persons  of  the 
Trinity.  The  aureole,  or  44  glory,”  surrounding  the  whole  body 
marks  eternal  happiness.  Among  sacred  figures  only  God,  the 
angels,  and  the  Apostles  have  bare  feet.  The  artist  has  an 
exact  knowledge  of  these  rules.  Moreover,  the  people  con¬ 
nected  with  the  church,  who  have  commissioned  and  watch 
over  the  work,  take  care  to  remind  them  of  them.  And  the 
people  are  not  to  be  deceived  on  the  subject.  Thus  the  Middle 
Ages  saw  in  art  a  means  of  instruction  incomparably  vivid, 
228 


THE  CATHEDRALS 


powerful,  and  broad.  At  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century 
do  not  the  Acts  of  the  Synod  of  Arras  say  :  44  Simple  and  un¬ 
lettered  souls  find  in  the  Church  what  they  cannot  know  through 
books  ;  they  see  it  in  the  lines  of  the  plan  ”  ?  At  the  beginning 
of  the  following  century  (twelfth  century)  Honorius  d’Autun  was 
to  say  in  his  turn  :  44  Painting  is  the  literature  of  laymen.” 

Here  is  the  wonderful  prayer  to  the  Virgin  Mary  which 
François  Villon  puts  into  the  mouth  of  his  old  mother  : 

I  am  a  woman  poor  and  old, 

I  know  nothing,  and  no  letters  have  read  ; 

In  my  parish  church  I  see 

Paradise  painted,  where  are  harps  and  lutes, 

And  a  hell  where  the  damned  are  cooked. 

The  one  makes  me  afraid,  the  other  glad  and  blithe. 

Give  me  happiness,  noble  saint, 

To  whom  all  sinners  should  have  recourse, 

Filled  with  faith  true  and  untiring  ; 

In  this  faith  I  will  live  and  die. 

Thus  the  cathedral  has  been  called  44  the  Bible  of  the 
poor.”  The  stained-glass  windows,  the  statues,  the  mural 
paintings,  the  figures  on  the  tapestries,  do  not  only  relate  the 
sacred  Scriptures,  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  but  the 
principles  of  morality.  One  sees  there  the  series  of  virtues 
and  vices  and  even  the  history  of  the  world,  the  moral  and 
material  worlds,  the  courses  of  the  seasons,  agricultural  labours, 
and  those  of  the  workshop  ;  and  the  reproduction  of  Nature 
as  God  has  shown  it  to  us.  It  is  a  44  mirror  ”  of  the  world,  to 
use  a  phrase  of  that  time.  It  is  at  Chartres  perhaps  that  this 
great  book  of  pictures  has  the  most  numerous  pages,  with  its 
10,000  personages  in  painting  and  sculpture.  The  poem  opens 
with  the  Creation  of  the  world  ;  then  here  come  our  first 
parents  driven  from  Paradise.  They  come  on  the  earth  where 
work  redeems  their  fault,  ennobles  their  life,  reconciles  them 
with  their  Creator. 

The  fruitful  efforts  of  man  working  for  his  livelihood,  the 
sculptors  have  put  in  relief  in  the  series  of  the  twelve  months, 
each  of  which  is  represented  by  the  rustic  labour  of  the  corre¬ 
sponding  season  of  the  year.  There  follow  the  representation 
of  the  virtues  and  vices,  the  configuration  of  the  world,  animals, 
trees,  plants,  flowers,  mountains,  and  waterways.  And  every- 

229 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


thing  holds  together  and  is  harmoniously  connected  in  this 
immense  history,  from  the  signs  of  the  Zodiac,  the  path  of  the 
sun  through  the  constellations,  to  the  grass  discreetly  growing 
in  the  fields  ;  from  God  in  His  dazzling  glory,  to  the  humble 
peasant  bent  over  the  brown  furrows.  See  the  vine  winding 
round  the  capitals.  The  wild  rose  clings  to  the  archivolts  ; 
ivy,  ferns,  spearwort  enlace  the  colonnettes.  Here  are  the 
flowers,  herbs,  and  fruits  dear  to  the  hearts  of  gardeners — roses, 
gladiolas,  heliotropes,  violets,  geraniums  ;  even  cabbage  leaves 
and  herbs  used  for  soup  ;  there  are  the  plantain,  cress,  parsley, 
and  the  little  sorrel  ;  apples  and  pears  growing  on  lattice- 
work,  the  raspberry  bush  with  its  burden  of  amaranthine 
berries,  vermilion  strawberries  among  their  great  green  leaves. 
Here  are  too  the  quiet  denizens  of  the  woods  :  the  robust 
branches  of  oak  and  elm,  the  slender  branches  of  the  beech, 
the  thin  boughs  of  the  birch,  the  maple,  the  wild  plum  tree, 
lords-and-ladies,  and  wood  anemone.  And  there  is  the  enamel 
work,  of  the  landscape,  broom,  umbelliferæ,  the  blades  of  ripe 
corn,  and  the  arum  ;  and  the  animals  of  the  poultry  yard,  the 
chicken  and  the  rabbit  ;  the  faithful  helpers  of  man,  the  ox,  the 
ass,  the  horse  ;  and  exotic  animals  too — the  elephant,  the  camel, 
the  lion,  which  crowd  together  multifarious  and  joyous.  Here 
is,  in  its  magnificence,  the  entire  work  of  the  Creator  on  which 
man  also,  in  the  sweat  of  his  brow,  has  made  his  valiant  mark. 

And  the  vast  edifice  is  animated  by  it  all  ;  life  palpitates 
within  it.  It  crackles  from  the  bases  of  the  slender  columns 
up  to  the  sculptured  capitals  beneath  the  vaults,  it  runs  on  the 
crest  of  the  buttresses  out  on  the  gargoyles  grimacing  in  sinister 
fashion  at  the  good  folk  passing  by,  with  their  noses  in  the  air, 
beneath  the  walls. 

The  studies  from  which  the  artist  worked  were  made  by 
him  with  minute  care  from  Nature.  The  album  has  been 
preserved  in  which  Villard  de  Honnecourt  made  from  Nature 
the  sketches  which  he  thought  useful  for  his  art.  After  he 
had  built  the  cathedral  of  Cambrai  he  traversed  France  and 
Switzerland,  sketching  in  his  album,  now  the  towers  of  Laon 
and  the  windows  of  Reims,  now  a  swallow,  a  parroquet,  a  fly, 
a  crayfish.  He  brought  a  patient  care  to  the  study  of  the 
least  little  beast.  Abandoning  the  sterile  imitation  of  the 
230 


THE  CATHEDRALS 


acanthus  and  old  laurel,  it  is  with  all  the  fauna  and  flora  of 
their  country,  with  the  fresh  and  joyous  vegetation  of  the 
banks  of  the  Seine  and  the  Oise,  that  the  Gothic  artists  decorate 
with  an  ardent  sanity  the  house  of  the  good  God. 

It  has  been  remarked  already  that  the  Gothic  style  in  the 
period  of  its  youth,  the  twelfth  century,  reproduces  spring 
flowers  :  its  vegetation  is  still  in  the  bud.  The  fern  has  hardly 
emerged  from  its  downy  sheath  ;  the  buds  appear  at  the  ends 
of  the  boughs  still  bent  back  like  a  spring.  In  the  thirteenth 
century,  Gothic  art  in  its  full  expansion  gathers  for  its  array 
a  vegetation  in  full  maturity  :  the  flowers  are  fully  opened, 
the  stems  are  long,  the  leaves  are  completely  unfolded.  Finally, 
the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  will  reproduce  an 
autumnal  flora,  a  leafage  shrivelled,  wrinkled,  jagged.  The 
artists  seek  great  ferns  which  apply  the  lace  of  their  palms  to 
the  humid  walls,  or  else  dry  plants  like  thistles  and  thorns — 
a  vegetation  which,  like  the  style  itself  of  which  it  forms  the 
ornament,  will  give  the  impression  of  a  life  which,  after  a 
supreme  and  flamboyant  brilliance,  is  on  the  point  of  extinction. 

Thus,  in  the  course  of  their  existence  the  cathedrals  had, 
like  that  Nature  of  which  they  were  the  splendid  expression, 
their  vivacious  spring-time,  their  luxuriant  summer,  and  their 
autumn  in  which  the  corollas  fall  apart  and  the  foliage  turns 
to  gold  as  though  impregnated  with  the  flames  of  the  setting 
sun. 

Lastly,  we  have  all  the  gaiety  of  the  time,  the  amiable 
frolics  which  do  not  disturb  the  serenity  of  a  religion  for  ever 
young.  In  a  corner  of  the  sacred  building  the  monkey  of  the 
minstrels  capers  in  bizarre  fashion.  Elsewhere  it  is  a  monk 
who  has  slept  peacefully  during  the  singing  of  the  Office  and 
awakens  suddenly  with  a  great  yawn.  Along  this  balustrade 
we  see  a  gossip  astraddle  on  an  ass,  riding  the  wrong  way  round  ; 
and  a  thousand  other  mischievous  tricks  of  the  artist  which, 
in  this  time  of  implicit  faith,  do  not  detract  from  the  sanctity 
of  the  place. 

As  to  the  sculptors,  those  admirable  artists  who  made  them¬ 
selves  the  interpreters  of  the  multitude  in  creating  these 
thousand  masterpieces,  they  were  hardly  conscious  of  their 
art.  They  were  hewers  of  stones.  In  the  contracts  they 

231 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


were  treated  as  simple  masons,  obliged  to  work  at  their  task 
from  morning  “  till  supper-time.”  Henry  of  Brussels,  one  of 
the  masters  of  the  work  of  the  cathedral  of  Troyes,  gets  married. 
On  the  day  of  his  wedding  he  did  not  go  to  work,  but  the  day 
is  counted  off  his  wages. 

In  fact,  the  sculptors  of  the  cathedrals  were  great,  more 
because  they  made  themselves,  like  the  epic  poets,  the  un¬ 
conscious  interpreters  of  the  living  beliefs  and  powerful  aspira¬ 
tions  of  the  people  among  whom  they  lived,  than  by  their 
professional  skill. 

We  may  say,  in  conclusion,  that  the  greater  number  of  these 
statues  were  painted,  as  also  were  the  vaults  of  the  churches, 
vaults  of  a  royal  blue  dotted  over  with  golden  stars. 

At  Notre  Dame  the  statues  in  bright  colours  stood  out  in 
the  tympans  of  the  porches  against  a  background  of  bright 
gold. 

It  was  a  polychrome  at  once  bold  and  harmonious,  the 
finest  part  of  which  was  formed  by  the  stained-glass  windows. 

And  this  is  an  art  which  is,  above  all  things,  French,  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  testimony  of  foreigners  such  as  the  monk  Theophilus 
who  establishes  it  in  his  Treatise  on  Various  Arts  (Diver sarum 
artium  schedula ).  The  first  Romanesque  churches  had  large 
flat  walls  which  the  painters  covered  with  frescoes  treated  as 
mosaics  under  a  Byzantine  inspiration.  Light  penetrated 
under  the  vaults  only  through  narrow  bays  closed  by  pierced 
slabs  of  stone,  or  through  large  wooden  frames  without  glass. 
An  example  of  these  primitive  devices  has  been  preserved  in 
the  church  of  Lichères  (Charente). 

The  use  of  ogives  and  buttresses  having  made  possible  the 
construction  of  higher  and  larger  walls,  the  architects  dared 
to  pierce  them  with  larger  bays  which  they  filled  with  glass, 
the  more  so  as  the  use  of  triple  naves  made  it  necessary  that 
the  light  should  penetrate  farther  into  the  church  to  light  the 
central  portion.  And  with  what  joy  the  youthful  and  vivid 
minds  of  the  men  of  the  time  were  to  receive  the  invention 
of  coloured  glass,  which  was  to  give  to  the  mural  surfaces  of  the 
churches  a  brilliance  and  beauty  which  no  fresco  or  mosaic 
could  have  attained. 

The  churches  now,  thanks  to  the  perfection  of  their  con- 

232 


THE  CATHEDRALS 


struction,  tend  more  and  more  to  become  luminous  shrines, 
made  of  translucent  mosaics,  for  as  such  indeed  do  the  windows 
appear,  filling  the  edifice  with  a  warm  radiance,  in  which  the 
rays  of  the  sun  take  on  the  various  colours  of  the  rainbow. 

It  was  in  France,  then,  that  the  art  of  stained  glass  took  its 
rise.  The  oldest  text  in  which  mention  is  made  of  stained- 
glass  windows  representing  stories  is  furnished  by  Richer, 
when  he  tells  us  that  Adalbéron,  Archbishop  of  Reims,  one  of 
the  founders  of  the  Capetian  Monarchy,  in  rebuilding  his 
cathedral  (969-988)  ornamented  it  with  windows  containing 
figures  from  stories  (fenestris  diver sas  continentibus  historias). 

At  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century,  still  in  France, 
this  art  of  storied  windows  was  to  make  great  progress,  through 
the  substitution  of  rings  of  soft  lead  for  the  wooden  frames. 
The  supple  character  of  the  lead  made  it  possible  to  follow 
sinuous  outlines.  Its  use  was  necessary  in  the  stained-glass 
window  as  it  was  produced  in  the  Middle  Ages,  not  only  to 
support  the  design  but  also  to  enclose  the  separate  colours  and 
so  prevent  their  diffusion.  Without  it  the  clearest  and  most 
vivid  colours,  in  juxtaposition  with  others  more  sombre,  wrould 
encroach  on  these,  and  from  a  distance  would  confuse  the 
design.  These  networks  of  lead  are  to  play  a  great  rôle  even 
in  the  design  itself.  Look  at  the  fine  Christ  of  the  Passion  at 
Poitiers  :  the  anatomy  of  the  body  is  traced  by  means  of  the 
leaden  curves  themselves. 

The  monk  Theophilus,  who  lived  at  the  beginning  of  the 
twelfth  century,  in  Italy  perhaps,  but  more  probably  in 
Germany,  gives  in  his  Treatise  on  the  Practice  of  the  Arts  the 
technique  of  stained  glass. 

“  Should  you  wish  to  design  windows  of  glass,  begin  by 
procuring  a  smooth  wooden  board,  sufficiently  long  and  wide 
for  you  to  be  able  to  work  on  it  at  two  panels  of  each  window. 
Then  take  some  chalk,  and  having  scraped  it  with  a  knife  so 
as  to  cover  the  whole  board  with  it,  sprinkle  it  with  water,  then 
spread  over  it  a  cloth  so  as  to  cover  the  whole  board.  When 
your  glaze  is  dry,  take  the  measure  of  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  panels  of  the  window  and  trace  it  on  the  board  with  lead 
or  tin.  If  you  want  a  border  to  it,  trace  it  giving  it  the  required 
size  and  ornamentations.  This  done,  trace  the  images  in  as 

233 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


great  a  number  as  you  will,  first  with  lead  or  tin,  and  after¬ 
wards  with  red  or  black  colours,  marking  carefully  all  the  lines  ; 
for  it  will  be  necessary  in  painting  the  glass  to  make  the  lights 
and  shadows  according  to  this  design  on  the  board.  Arranging 
the  different  draperies,  mark  the  colour  of  each  of  them  in  its 
place  as  well  as  of  all  other  objects  which  you  wish  to  represent. 
Mark  in  the  colour  by  a  letter.  After  this  take  a  little  cup  of 
lead,  in  which  you  will  put  some  powdered  chalk  in  water. 
Make  two  or  three  fine  brushes  of  martin’s  tail  or  minever,  or 
squirrel’s  or  cat’s  hair  or  donkey’s  mane  ;  and  take  a  piece  of 
glass  of  the  kind  you  want,  bigger  in  every  direction  than  the 
space  on  which  it  is  to  be  placed,  and,  applying  it  on  the  surface 
of  the  board,  you  will  follow  the  design,  by  the  lines  on  the 
board  seen  through  the  glass,  repeating  them  with  your  brush 
on  the  glass  itself.  And  if  the  glass  is  so  thick  that  you  cannot 
see  through  it  the  lines  drawn  on  the  board,  take  a  piece  of  white 
glass  and  placing  it  on  the  table  trace  on  it  in  transfer  the  lines 
in  question  ;  after  which,  when  your  line  is  dry,  place  the  thick 
coloured  glass  against  the  white  glass,  and,  lifting  it  up  against 
the  light  so  as  to  light  it  with  its  rays,  sketch  in  the  lines  as  you 
see  them.  You  will  design  in  the  same  way  all  kinds  of  glass, 
whether  it  be  a  matter  of  figures,  draperies,  hands,  feet,  borders, 
or  any  other  object  you  wish  to  reproduce  in  colour.” 

The  cutting  of  the  coloured  glass  according  to  the  lines 
of  the  design  was  a  difficult  and  delicate  operation,  for  the  use 
of  the  diamond  point  (which  will  not  appear  until  the  sixteenth 
century)  was  not  yet  known.  They  used  red-hot  iron,  the 
contact  of  which  involved  the  risk  of  making  the  glass  fly  into 
splinters. 

The  workers  in  stained  glass  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth 
centuries  used  only  simple  colours — red,  blue,  yellow,  and  their 
composites,  green  and  violet.  In  places  they  put  white  ;  dull 
white,  clear  white,  or  greenish  white.  The  shades  are  rendered 
by  the  inequalities  of  the  glass,  by  its  thickness,  which  is  greater 
or  less  in  places.  Certainly  from  the  point  of  view  of  an  ideally 
perfect  manufacture  the  sheets  of  glass  used  in  the  windows  of 
the  twelfth  century  would  furnish  material  nowadays  to  more 
than  one  critic.  What  blisters,  and  opacities  ;  what  swellings, 
what  inequalities  !  But  the  art  of  the  worker  in  stained  glass 
234 


THE  CATHEDRALS 


was  able  to  draw  even  from  these  imperfections  the  happiest 
results.  To  the  eyes  which  regard  these  windows  from  a 
distance  what  a  wealth  of  colour  and  warmth  they  afford  !  They 
spread  over  the  wall  a  translucent  tapestry,  made  up  of  precious 
stones  glistening  and  tremulous,  instead  of  the  dull  cold  sur¬ 
faces  afforded  by  modern  windows. 

The  stained  -  glass  windows  of  the  eleventh  and  twelfth 
centuries  are  composed  of  pieces  of  glass  coloured  in  the  mass. 
It  is  by  the  juxtaposition  of  the  pieces  of  coloured  glass  that 
the  design  is  obtained.  The  oldest  windows  with  figures  now 
known  are  those  of  Dijon  and  Reims  ;  but  it  was  in  the  Ile-de- 
France  in  the  thirteenth  century  that  were  produced,  with  the 
full  blossoming  of  the  Gothic  style,  the  richest  and  most 
beautiful  windows.  It  was  at  St.  Denis,  under  the  direction  of 
Abbot  Suger,  that  the  art  of  the  worker  in  stained  glass  reached 
its  perfection.  The  finest  of  the  windows  which  he  commissioned, 
that  incomparable  history  of  the  First  Crusade,  were  unhappily 
destroyed  by  the  Revolution.  What  remain  enable  us  to  form 
a  judgment  of  these  masterpieces. 

From  St.  Denis  the  glass  workers  of  Abbot  Suger  migrated 
to  Chartres,  then  to  Angers  in  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century. 
They  afterwards  crossed  the  Straits  and  went  to  York,  to 
decorate  the  cathedral  there  with  their  dazzling  mosaics. 

The  finest  windows  known  to-day  are  all  of  the  end  of  the 
eleventh  and  of  the  twelfth  century.  They  are  the  windows 
of  the  church  of  St.  Remy  at  Reims — sacked  by  the  Boches — 
of  the  church  of  St.  Denis,  of  the  cathedrals  of  Chartres,  Angers, 
and  Bourges.  The  design  of  the  figures  may  appear  too 
archaic  and  stiff  ;  but  what  character  they  have,  and  what 
shall  we  say  of  the  ornamentation,  of  those  borders  of  flowers 
and  foliage  which  form  them  into  admirable  miniatures, 
brilliant  and  luminous  ?  The  windows  of  the  thirteenth  cen¬ 
tury,  such  as  some  in  the  Sainte  Chapelle,  are  already  harsher 
and  the  colours  drier.  The  windows  of  the  twelfth  century  are 
recognised  by  their  blue  backgrounds,  a  blue  as  deep  and 
transparent  as  the  azure  of  the  sky  on  fine  summer  days,  an 
atmosphere  which  palpitates  round  the  figures  which  it  seems 
to  enwrap. 

In  the  thirteenth  century  this  blue  ground,  at  once  intense 

235 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


and  very  soft,  is  replaced  by  a  background  of  blue  and  red 
tones  which  produces  at  a  distance  a  violet  colour,  with  a  shade 
of  peaceful  melancholy,  which  is  far  from  being  without  charm, 
but  which  does  not  give  to  the  whole  work  the  powerful  and 
profound  harmony  of  an  earlier  period. 

And  from  the  point  of  view  of  technique  these  windows 
were  of  an  admirable  workmanship.  Their  grooves  were 
filled  with  putty,  which  protected  the  work  against  the  rain. 
Thus  these  wonders  of  art,  which  have  never  been  surpassed 
in  any  branch  whatever  of  the  arts,  arrived  intact  at  the  thres¬ 
hold  of  modern  times.  It  required  the  cultivated  ignorance 
of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  the  grossness  of 
the  Revolution,  and  the  infamous  savagery  of  the  Germans 
in  1914  to  1918  to  destroy  them  criminally. 

By  the  time  of  the  death  of  Philip  Augustus  nearly  all 
the  cathedrals  of  the  royal  domain  were  completed  :  Paris, 
Chartres,  Bourges,  Noyon,  Laon,  Soissons,  Meaux,  Auxerre, 
Arras,  Cambrai,  Rouen,  Evreux,  Séez,  Bayeux,  Coutances, 
Le  Mans,  Angers,  Poitiers,  and  Tours.  The  English  Guienne, 
on  the  contrary,  preserved  its  old  monuments. 

By  the  time  of  the  death  of  Philip  the  Fair  the  royal  domain 
will  have  expanded.  It  will  have  annexed  Champagne  and 
French-speaking  Flanders  ;  it  will  have  conquered  Lyons.  Its 
influence  will  have  penetrated  Auvergne  and  Burgundy,  and 
these  provinces  will  then  be  seen  adopting  in  their  turn  the 
Gothic  style  received  by  them  in  its  completed  form.  But 
the  provinces  under  the  English  domination  still  stand  out, 
and  when  they  enter  at  last  into  the  general  movement  they 
will  find  a  style  which,  after  its  long  and  glorious  career,  will 
no  longer  have  the  force  necessary  for  a  vigorous  renewal. 

Thus  our  great  churches  are  nearly  all  complete  when  the 
Valois  ascend  the  throne.  The  churches  tardily  begun  in  the 
fourteenth  century — always  excepting  St.  Ouen  at  Rouen — 
will  not  be  able  to  be  finished.  They  are,  as  it  were,  atrophied 
during  their  growth — and  this  is  indeed  the  suitable  expression, 
so  much  did  it  seem  that  a  vivifying  sap  was  rising  in  their 
stone  arteries. 

For  the  rest,  not  a  single  one  of  our  great  churches  was 
finished  according  to  the  plan  on  which  it  was  conceived.  The 
236 


THE  CATHEDRALS 


prodigious  impulse  which  caused  them  to  spring  from  the 
ground  is  included  almost  entirely  in  the  reign  of  Philip 
Augustus — forty  years — which  one  might  extend  perhaps  up 
to  the  year  1240 — sixty  years  in  all.  And  the  effort  produced 
in  this  short  space  of  time  might  seem  superhuman.  Nothing 
even  remotely  comparable  to  it  has  since  been  seen,  just  as 
nothing  has  appeared  since  comparable  to  the  wonderful 
flowering  of  the  epic  poems,  contemporary  with  the  cathedrals, 
which  furnish  for  them  so  magnificent  an  echo. 

It  was  in  the  Ile-de-France,  that  little  land  smaller  than 
Greece,  as  great  as  Greece  by  reason  of  its  genius,  that  the 
Gothic  churches  and  the  epic  poems  were  together  elaborated  to 
spread  subsequently  throughout  the  civilized  world.  It  formed 
a  literary  and  artistic  influence  which  created  from  the  twelfth 
century  onwards  a  “  French  Europe,”  to  use  the  expression 
by  which  will  be  characterized  later  the  radiation  of  French 
culture  after  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV. 

The  English  chroniclers  themselves,  such  as  Herbert  of 
Bosham,  speak  in  the  twelfth  century  of  “  sweet  France.” 
Bruneto  Latini  will  in  the  thirteenth  century  write  his  Trésor 
in  French,  because  “  the  speech  of  France  is  more  general  to 
all  people,  and  more  delectable  to  hear  than  any  other.”  And 
Francis  of  Assisi  will  find  no  greater  happiness  than  in  chanting 
the  praises  of  the  Lord  in  French. 

Already  Paris  exercised  her  fascination  on  the  whole  of 
Europe.  A  German  poet,  Hugo  of  Trimberg,  writes  : 

“  How  many  people  have  been  to  Paris  !  They  learned 
little  there  and  spent  much,  but  they  have  seen  Paris  !  ” 

The  manners  of  the  French  châtelaines  became  for  the 
whole  of  Europe  : 

.  .  .  the  touchstone  and  the  example 
Of  what  should  be  permissible  and  done. 

( Cléomàdes .) 

In  the  same  way  in  all  Germany  nothing  else  was  read 
but  the  French  epic  poems  translated  into  German.  The 
best  poets,  Heinrich  von  Veldeke,  Johannsdorf,  Friedrich  von 
Hansen,  Ptudolf  von  Neuenberg,  and  how  many  others  imitated 
the  trouvères  or  troubadours,  Folquet  de  Marseille  and  Pierre 
Vidal.  The  French  language  was  spoken  by  all  educated 

237 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


people.  French  expressions  and  phrases  were  already  entering 
into  the  German  language  to  designate  things  relating  to  culture 
and  civilization.  The  French  style  was  substituted  for  the 
ancient  manner  of  building.  Clothes  were  cut  after  French 
fashions.  Domestics  served  in  the  French  manner.  The  life 
of  Court  and  castle  was  organized  à  la  française.  In  the  castles 
of  the  Rhine,  French  minstrels  were  welcomed  effusively. 

We  have  seen  William  of  Sens  building  Canterbury  Cathedral 
(1175-81)  on  the  model  of  that  of  Sens.  The  cathedral  of 
Lincoln  is  built  by  another  Frenchman,  reproducing  a  church 
the  construction  of  which  had  been  begun  at  Blois  in  1138. 
We  have  seen  the  French  architects  going  to  Germany  to  raise 
there  their  opus  francigenum,  while  young  German  architects 
come  to  study  in  France  the  principles  and  rules  of  their  art. 
We  have  followed  the  architect  Villard  de  Honnecourt  beyond 
the  German  frontier  into  Hungary,  where,  no  doubt,  he  built 
the  cathedral  of  Cassovia.  Mathieu  d’Arras  and  Pierre  de 
Boulogne  directed  the  building  of  Prague  Cathedral,  to  which 
comes  later  Henry  Arler,  master  of  works  at  Boulogne-sur-Mer. 
To  the  son  of  this  latter,  Pierre  Arler,  the  cathedral  of  Ulm 
is  probably  due.  Stephen  de  Bonneuil  with  ten  “  young 
men  ”  ( bacheliers ),  went  to  Sweden  to  build  the  cathedral  of 
Upsala.  The  company  left  Paris  in  September  1287.  Martin 
Ravège  built  the  cathedral  of  Colocza,  where  the  stone  marking 
his  grave  is  preserved. 

French  architects  passed  from  England  into  Norway,  where 
their  influence  is  especially  felt  in  the  plans  and  decoration 
of  the  beautiful  blue  church  of  Trondjem. 

In  Spain  also,  churches  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries 
due  to  architects  of  our  country  are  very  numerous.  And 
these  are,  dating  from  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century,  the 
church  of  Compostella,  then  that  of  Leon,  Burgos,  and  Gerona. 
The  plans  of  the  cathedral  of  Toledo,  the  foundations  of  which 
were  laid  in  1226,  were  designed  by  Pierre  de  Corbie.  Finally, 
even  in  the  isle  of  Cyprus  and  the  Holy  Land,  some  of  the  most 
important  religious  and  military  buildings  were  due  to  our 
architects  of  Paris  or  Champagne. 

In  Italy  it  was  some  French  artists,  Philippe  Bonaventure, 
Pierre  Loisart,  Jean  Mignot,  who  built  the  cathedral  of  Milan. 
238 


THE  CATHEDRALS 


In  Southern  Italy  Frederick  II  and  Charles  of  Anjou  employed 
French  architects  Philippe  Clunart,  Jean  de  Toul,  and  Pierre 
d’Angicourt. 

In  Italy  as  in  Germany  the  influence  of  the  French  poets 
was  even  greater,  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  than 
that  of  the  artists.  The  majority  of  our  national  poems  were 
imported  there,  and  so  energetically  did  our  minstrels  circulate 
there  the  works  of  the  French  poets  of  the  South  that  they 
came,  as  we  have  seen,  to  form  a  kind  of  jargon,  a  mixture 
of  Italian  and  French,  which  the  people  beyond  the  Alps 
came  to  understand,  and  which  our  artists,  perched  on  a  stage, 
gave  forth  in  the  public  squares  or  at  the  street  corners.  And 
the  avidity  with  which  the  peoples  of  the  Peninsula  listened 
to  them  was  so  great  that  the  Governor  of  Bologna  thought 
right  to  pass  a  law  forbidding  the  flocking  round  the  French 
minstrels. 

The  troubadours  obtained  an  equal  success  with  the  trouvères 
in  Italy,  Spain,  and  Portugal. 

44  I  want  to  compose  a  love  song  in  the  Provençal  style,” 
says  a  poet  of  the  Iberian  Peninsula.  And  which  poet  ? 
Denis  the  Liberal,  King  of  Portugal.  Spanish  troubadours 
like  the  Italian  troubadours,  wrote  in  Provençal  up  to  the 
fourteenth  century,  and  it  is  known  that  Dante  himself  com¬ 
posed  much  verse  in  that  tongue.  The  Courts  of  Aragon, 
Castile,  Leon,  Navarre,  and  Portugal  resounded  with  poems 
and  songs  composed  in  our  language  of  oc. 

France  then  has  known  two  great  centuries  of  creative 
organization — the  eleventh  century,  the  century  of  feudalism, 
and  the  seventeenth  century,  the  century  of  royal  power, 
followed  by  those  two  great  centuries  of  literary  and  artistic 
expansion,  the  twelfth  and  the  eighteenth  centuries. 

Sources.  —  Theophilus,  Essai  sur  divers  arts ,  cd.  L’Escalopier,  1843; 
Viet.  Mortet,  Textes  relatifs  à  Vhistoire  de  V architecture  (XT  -XIT  Siècles ), 
1911. 

Historical  Works.  —  Viollet-le-Duc,  Dictionnaire  d' Architecture,  ed. 
cit.  ;  J.  B.  A.  Lassus,  Album  de  Villard  de  Honnecourt,  1858  ;  Anthyme 
Saint-Paul,  Histoire  monumentale  de  la  France ,  new  ed.,  1911  ;  L. 
Gonge,  L'Art  Gothique  (1890)  ;  Emile  Mâle,  L'Art  religieux  du  XIIIe 
Siècle  en  France ,  1902 — a  splendid  work  of  rare  value  from  every  point 

239 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


of  view.  H.  Stein,  Les  Architectes  des  Cathedràles  Gothiques  (1909) — a 
precious  little  volume  of  which  we  have  made  great  use  ;  Cam.  Enlart, 
Manuel  d'archéologie  française,  1902-16,  3  vols.  ;  Ol.  Merson,  Les 
Vitraux ,  1898  ;  Luc.  Magne,  L'art  appliqué  aux  metiers  :  Decor  sur  verre , 

1913  ;  L.  Reynaud,  Histoire  générale  de  l'influence  française  en  Allemagne, 

1914  ;  Alwin  Schultz,  Das  Hôfische  Lehen  zur  Zeit  der  Minnesinger,  2nd 
ed.,  1899,  2  vols.  ;  Emile  Mâle,  L'Art  allemand  et  V art  française  au  Moyen 
Age,  1917. 


240 


CHAPTER  XII 


LOUIS  VII 

The  direction  of  the  Government  remains  in  the  hands  of  Suger. 
Eleanor  of  Aquitaine.  Conflict  with  the  English  Crown.  St. 
Bernard’s  Crusade.  The  King’s  divorce.  Louis  VII  married 
again  to  Adèle  de  Champagne.  Birth  of  Philip  Augustus.  The 
progress  of  the  royal  power.  Character  of  Louis  VII’s  govern¬ 
ment. 

LOUIS  VII,  known  as  Louis  the  Young  (Le  Jeune),  was 
fifteen  or  sixteen  years  old  when  he  succeeded  his 
father  Louis  le  Gros  (1st  August  1137).  Lie  had  been 
“  associated  ”  to  the  throne  and  consecrated  at  Reims  on  the 
25th  October  1131.  At  the  moment  of  assuming  the  Crown 
he  had  just  married  Eleanor,  daughter  of  William  X,  Duke 
of  Aquitaine,  who  had  died  in  Spain  on  pilgrimage  to  the 
shrine  of  St.  James.  In  his  last  moments  William  had  begged 
the  nobles  of  his  Duchy,  standing  round  him,  to  marry  his 
daughter  the  heiress  to  his  States,  to  the  son  of  the  King  of 
France.  The  sentiment  of  national  unity  was  coming  into 
existence.  The  marriage  doubled  the  extent  of  the  royal 
domain  in  the  hands  of  the  Capetians. 

Louis  VII  was  careful  to  maintain  Abbot  Suger  in  power. 
If  any  influence  could  have  opposed  the  work  of  the  great 
minister  it  would  have  been  that  of  the  young  Queen  Eleanor, 
a  vivacious  and  gay  Southerner,  pretty,  graceful,  sprightly, 
wayward,  and  fanciful.  She  was  ardent  and  passionate. 
The  young  King,  who  was  acquainted  up  to  the  day  of  his 
marriage  only  with  the  graver  manners  of  the  North,  was 
charmed  by  her.  He  was  won  by  her  graces,  her  mischievous, 
kittenish  cajoleries,  the  pretty  ways  she  had  learned  in  a  Court 
where  her  grandfather,  William  IX  of  Aquitaine,  had  been  a 
delightful  troubadour. 


Q 


241 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Eleanor  had  brought  from  the  South  frivolous  notions,  not 
so  much  subject  to  the  discipline  of  the  Church,  and  she  tried 
to  withdraw  her  young  husband  from  the  authority  of  the 
prelates,  which  was  too  strict  for  her  liking.  Thus  the  influence 
of  Suger  was  not  absolutely  paramount.  The  King  resists 
the  Sovereign  Pontiff  in  the  matter  of  the  nomination  of  the 
new  Bishop  of  Bourges.  He  attacks  Thibaud  of  Champagne, 
who  is  protected  by  St.  Bernard  ;  so  that  in  the  end  the  Pope 
lays  him  under  an  interdict. 

The  struggle  against  the  feudatories  goes  on,  at  least  against 
the  great  feudal  lords  ;  for  the  “  hobereaux  ”  of  the  royal 
domain  are  no  longer  to  be  feared.  In  the  chief  of  these  the 
Montmorencys,  the  Dammartins,  the  Clermonts,  the  Beaumonts, 
the  monarchy  has  found  servants.  The  great  feudal  lords  had 
pursued  this  same  struggle  against  their  own  unruly  squires, 
and  they  also  had  triumphed  over  them  within  the  limits  of 
their  respective  fiefs.  Thus  they  can  in  their  resistance  to  the 
Crown  adopt  a  more  ambitious  policy.  Louis  VII  takes 
possession  of  Champagne  ;  Reims  and  Châlons  are  occupied. 
At  Vitry  thirteen  hundred  people  are  burnt  alive  in  a  church, 
a  fact  which  strikes  the  imagination  of  the  King  and  helps 
to  impel  him,  by  way  of  expiation,  towards  the  Holy  Land. 
Thibaud  allies  himself  with  the  Counts  of  Flanders  and  Soissons 
in  proclaiming  the  betrothal  of  his  son  and  daughter  with  their 
daughter  and  son.  By  this  he  broke  openly  with  his  suzerain  ; 
for  a  feudatory  had  no  right  to  arrange  the  marriage  of  his 
children  without  the  consent  of  the  King.  The  situation  was 
most  threatening  when  Innocent  II  died  (24th  September  1143). 
His  successor,  Celestine  II,  will  show  himself  more  conciliatory. 
Peace  is  re-established  (1144).  Louis  VII  yielded  on  the 
matter  of  the  bishopric  of  Bourges.  However,  an  event  occurred 
which  was  to  involve  the  gravest  consequences.  Geoffrey  the 
Fair,  Count  of  Anjou,  taking  advantage  of  the  troubles  to 
which  the  succession  of  his  father-in-law,  Henry  I,  was  giving 
rise  in  England,  seized  Normandy.  Louis  VII  was  skilful 
enough  to  have  handed  over  to  him  in  return  for  his  acquiescence 
in  this  conquest  several  keeps  in  the  Vexin  and  the  famous 
castle  of  Gisors-sur-Epte,  which  was  of  capital  importance  from 
its  position  on  the  frontier  between  Normandy  and  the  royal 
242 


LOUIS  VII 


domain.  The  foundations  of  the  redoubtable  empire  of  the 
Plantagenets  were  none  the  less  established.  The  first  years 
of  the  reign,  in  spite  of  the  youth  of  the  sovereign,  did  not  fail 
to  augur  well  for  the  future.  The  young  King  was  evincing 
intelligence,  decision,  and  energy  when  he  had  the  unfortunate 
idea  of  taking  part  in  a  new  Crusade  (the  second),  of  which  he 
even  appears  to  have  been  the  promoter,  in  memory  of  the 
tragedy  of  Vitry.  Edessa  had  just  fallen  into  the  hands  of 
the  Mohammedans.  The  French  barons  were  evincing  repug¬ 
nance  towards  the  remote  expedition,  and  the  new  Pope, 
Eugenius  III,  was  not  entering  enthusiastically  into  the  views 
of  the  King,  when  at  the  Council  of  Vézelay  the  burning 
eloquence  of  St.  Bernard  stirred  up  new  enthusiasms  (1146). 
The  town  could  not  hold  the  crowd  which  had  flocked  to  it. 
The  Abbot  of  Citeaux  preached  in  the  country  from  the  top  of 
a  wooden  tower  which  had  been  put  up  for  him.  The  King 
of  France  stood  beside  him.  The  scenes  of  Clermont  were 
repeated.  Thousands  of  crosses  prepared  beforehand  were 
scattered  among  the  crowd  like  seeds  in  a  field.  The  preacher’s 
clothes  were  torn  from  him  and  made  into  crosses.  “  The 
Abbot  Bernard,”  writes  Eude  de  Deuil,  “  hid  a  robust  soul 
under  a  frail  and  seemingly  dying  body.  He  went  about  like  the 
wind,  preaching  everywhere,  and  the  crosses  were  multiplied.” 
“  I  opened  my  mouth,”  writes  the  Saint  himself;  “I  spoke  : 
the  villages  and  towns  have  become  deserts.  One  sees  every¬ 
where  only  widows  whose  husbands  are  alive,”  i.e.  on  Crusade. 
But  it  was  no  longer  the  great  popular  impulse  of  1099.  With 
his  powerful  mind  St.  Bernard  organized  a  vast  movement 
by  which  the  Mohammedans  were  to  be  attacked  simultaneously, 
both  in  the  Holy  Land  and  in  Portugal — for  the  African 
Mohammedans  still  ruled  in  Lisbon — as  well  as  the  pagan 
Slavs  beyond  the  Elbe. 

At  the  same  time  as  the  King  of  France,  the  German  Emperor 
Conrad  took  the  cross.  The  rivalries  between  the  French  and 
Germans,  who  made  a  reproach  to  each  other  of  their  different 
habits,  customs,  and  fashions,  and  in  the  East  the  hostility 
between  Latins  and  Greeks,  led  to  a  frightful  disaster.  The 
Germans  were  massacred  near  Dorylæum,  the  French  at  the 
siege  of  Damascus  (1118). 


243 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Louis  VII  was  too  much  in  love  with  his  wife  to  bring  him¬ 
self  to  part  with  her.  In  Syria  Eleanor’s  temperament  gave 
itself  free  rein.  An  enervating  heat  fell  from  the  heavens, 
and  the  manners  of  the  country  were  easy.  The  women  clothed 
themselves  in  transparent  silk.  Eleanor  found  once  more  the 
pleasant  ways  of  the  South.  Ah  !  these  men  of  the  North, 
harsh,  unpolished,  jealous  !  For  the  King  was  jealous.  At 
Antioch  (March  1148)  there  was  a  violent  scene,  followed  by  a 
real  scandal.  In  her  thin  imperious  voice  Eleanor  declared 
that  her  husband  could  depart  if  it  seemed  good  to  him  :  she 
intended  to  stay  in  the  town.  Louis  VII  had  her  taken  to 
Jerusalem  as  a  captive.  A  family  quarrel  before  the  eyes  of 
the  Crusaders  !  Finally,  from  Jerusalem,  where  Louis  VII  had 
the  misfortune  to  be  belated,  the  remnants  of  the  French  army 
returned  to  Europe  without  having  been  able  to  strike  an 
appreciable  blow  at  the  Mohammedan  Empire. 

A  fact  which  could,  in  a  measure  at  least,  counterbalance 
this  grave  check  was  that,  during  the  absence  of  the  King, 
Suger  had  administered  his  States  with  incomparable  wisdom. 
The  reign  of  Louis  VII  seemed  to  be  developing  in  the  happiest 
possible  manner  when  the  conjugal  scenes  of  Antioch  produced 
their  consequences.  44  Some  of  the  relatives  and  kinsmen  of 
the  King,”  a  chronicler  relates,  44  came  to  him  and  told  him 
that  there  were  between  him  and  Queen  Eleanor  ties  of  con¬ 
sanguinity.” 

On  the  18th  March  the  union  of  the  King  and  Queen  was 
dissolved.  Eleanor  went  back  to  her  beautiful  Aquitaine, 
where  she  wasted  no  time  in  mourning  over  her  broken  union. 
On  the  18th  May  she  married  quite  gaily  Henry,  the  son  of 
Geoffrey  Martel,  Count  of  Anjou — he  was  surnamed  Plantagenet 
because  it  was  his  custom  to  stick  a  jennet  {genet)  in  his  scarlet 
bonnet  embroidered  with  a  leopard.  To  Henry  Plantagenet 
Eleanor  brought,  not  only  her  voluptuous  graces,  but — what 
perhaps  the  noble  lord  prized  still  more — her  magnificent 
domains  in  the  South. 

Suger  had  died  on  the  13th  January  1151.  We  may  safely 
affirm  that,  in  his  lifetime,  he  would  not  have  allowed  these 
precious  ties  of  consanguinity  to  be  produced. 

Henry  Plantagenet,  the  son  of  Geoffrey  Martel,  Count  of 

244 


LOUIS  Y 1 1 


Anjou,  grandson  through  Matilda  his  mother  of  Henry  Beau- 
clerc,  King  of  England,  and  great-grandson  of  the  Conqueror, 
possessed  Touraine  and  Anjou,  Normandy  and  Maine.  Behold 
him  too,  through  his  wife,  master  of  Poitou,  Guienne,  and 
Gascony,  with  suzerainty  over  Aunis,  Saintonge,  Angoumois, 
Quercy,  la  Marche,  Auvergne,  and  Périgord.  In  the  following 
year  he  finds  himself  heir  to  the  crown  of  England,  which  he 
assumes  in  1155,  and  when  his  son  shall  have  married  the 
heiress  of  the  Duchy  of  Brittany,  which  he  is  to  govern  as 
regent,  he,  the  King  of  England,  will  be  the  ruler  of  three- 
quarters  of  the  French  realm. 

This  would  have  meant  the  ruin  of  the  throne  of  the  fleur- 
de-lis,  if  popular  traditions  had  not  preserved  to  the  King  his 
rôle  of  protector  and  suzerain,  Grand  Justiciary  of  the  land. 
But  they  preserved  it  to  him  with  such  great  energy  that, 
solely  through  the  power  of  this  office  of  protector,  the  King 
of  St.  Denis  will  win  back  the  whole  kingdom. 

To  tell  the  truth,  Louis  VII  tried  to  make  a  struggle,  but 
the  forces  were  unequal,  the  more  so  as  Henry  II  of  the  Plan- 
tagenet  house  was  a  man  of  great  courage.  On  the  31st 
August  1158  the  two  sovereigns  meet  outside  Gisors.  A  treaty 
of  peace  is  concluded.  It  is  even  stipulated  that  Henry,  the 
eldest  son  of  the  English  King — he  was  three  years  old — shall 
marry  Marguerite  the  third  daughter  (aged  six  months)  of 
Louis  VII.  Henry  went  back  to  England  with  the  little 
bride-to-be  in  his  custody.  But  shortly  afterwards  the  war 
recommenced.  Henry  II,  as  Duke  of  Aquitaine,  claimed  the 
County  of  Toulouse.  Louis  VII  hastened  to  the  assistance  of 
Count  Raymond  V,  and  as  his  forces  were  weaker  than  those 
of  the  Plantagenet,  he  shut  himself  up  with  Raymond  in  the 
town.  Here  an  unexpected  sight  was  seen. 

So  deeply  was  implanted  in  the  minds  of  the  men  of  that 
time  the  respect  due  to  the  royal  suzerainty  that  the  powerful 
King  of  England,  Duke  of  Aquitaine  and  Normandy,  Count 
of  Anjou  and  Governor  of  Brittany,  declared  that  it  was  im¬ 
possible  for  him  to  besiege  a  place  in  which  was  the  King  of 
France,  his  suzerain.  So  he  decamped  with  his  formidable 
army,  scruples  which  even  the  Chancellor  of  England,  the 
famous  Thomas  Becket,  treated  as  mere  quibbles. 


245 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


On  the  4th  October  1160,  Constance,  the  second  wife  of 
Louis  VII,  died.  Hardly  a  few  weeks  had  passed  before  Louis 
married  again,  Adèle  de  Champagne  ;  to  which  Henry  II, 
King  of  England,  retorted  by  concluding  the  marriage  of  his 
eldest  son  with  the  little  Marguerite  of  France  whom  he  had 
in  his  keeping.  The  new  husband  and  wife  could  count  nine 
years  between  them.  Louis  VII  had  no  son  by  his  marriage 
with  Constance.  His  neighbour  across  the  Channel  had  hoped 
that  he  would  never  have  one.  War  broke  out  again,  followed 
by  another  treaty  of  peace. 

The  King  of  England,  Duke  of  Normandy,  recovered 
Gisors  ;  the  Count  of  Toulouse  was  abandoned. 

At  this  moment  the  destinies  of  the  Capetian  dynasty 
appeared  to  be  compromised.  Events  relatively  of  minor 
importance,  when  they  are  compared  to  the  consequences, 
suffice  to  show  that  the  moral  foundations  on  which  the  French 
King’s  power  rested,  represented  a  force  which  it  would  not  be 
easy  to  shake. 

Thomas  Becket,  the  Chancellor,  was  elected,  on  the  3rd 
June  1162,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  Primate  of  England. 
From  that  day  forth,  he,  who  had  never  ceased  to  show  him¬ 
self  the  most  ardent  protagonist  of  the  rights  of  the  English 
Monarchy,  the  boldest  of  the  councillors  of  Henry  II,  displayed 
an  equal  zeal  in  defence  of  the  privileges  of  his  Church.  Henry 
II  had  attempted  to  submit  the  clerics  of  his  kingdom  to  his 
judicial  authority  and  to  make  them  pay  taxes  like  the  laity. 
To  this  Becket  opposed  an  unexpected  resistance.  Henry 
tried  to  bend  him.  The  Archbishop  would  not  yield.  The 
struggle  became  so  violent  that  Becket  had  to  flee  to  France, 
where  Louis  VII  received  him  with  great  honour. 

Louis  VII  was  a  very  good  man  ;  too  good.  Instead  of 
profiting  by  the  circumstances  to  increase  the  embarrassments 
of  his  redoubtable  neighbour,  he  set  himself  to  arrange  several 
interviews  between  the  prelate  and  the  English  monarch  in  the 
artless  desire  of  effecting  a  reconciliation.  The  third  of  these 
interviews,  at  the  Ferté-Bernard  (20th  to  22nd  July  1170),  ended 
in  an  agreement.  Becket  went  back  to  his  see.  But  the 
dispute  soon  broke  out  again.  At  the  castle  of  Bures-lès- 
Bayeux,  in  December  1170,  Henry  II  allowed  these  words  to 
246 


LOUIS  Y  1 1 


escape  him  :  “A  man  who  has  eaten  my  bread,  who  came  to 
my  Court  poor  and  naked,  and  whom  I  have  placed  above 
all  others,  dares  to  raise  his  foot  and  kick  me  in  the  teeth. 
And  there  is  no  one  to  avenge  me  on  this  cleric  !  ”  The  words 
fell  on  the  ears  of  four  English  barons.  On  the  29th  December 
they  assassinated  Thomas  Becket  on  the  altar  steps  in  his 
cathedral  of  Canterbury. 

The  stir  made  by  this  event  cannot  be  imagined.  The 
victim  was  resplendent  with  the  palms  of  martyrdom.  On  his 
tomb  miracles  were  worked.  In  that  time  of  ardent  faith 
Henry  II  felt  that  his  power  was  being  thus  undermined. 

Then  on  the  21st  August  1165,  Adèle  de  Champagne  gave 
to  Louis  VII  the  son  he  had  waited  for  so  long.  The  de¬ 
scription  of  the  joy  of  the  people  reveals  the  intensity  which 
monarchical  sentiment  had  already  assumed.  In  the  middle 
of  the  night  the  news  runs  through  Paris.  The  town  wakes 
up  and  bursts  into  illumination.  At  the  cross-roads  bonfires 
blaze.  Thousands  of  torches  are  borne  through  the  streets. 
Cries  of  triumph  re-echo  noisily.  The  people  pull  the  beadles 
out  of  bed  and  make  them  open  the  churches,  into  which  the 
crowds  fling  themselves  to  sing  their  thanksgivings.  From 
the  highest  lord  to  the  humblest  peasant  all  unite  their  joy  in  a 
general  clamour. 

Awakened  by  the  tumult,  Gerald  de  Barri,  an  English 
student,  rushes  to  his  window.  Two  poor  old  women  were 
running  along  with  all  the  strength  of  their  stiffened  limbs, 
waving  lighted  candles.  Gerald  asked  them  in  his  French  with 
an  English  accent  what  was  the  meaning  of  all  this  nocturnal 
uproar. 

44  We  have  a  King  given  us  by  God,  a  proud  heir  to  the 
throne,  who  will  put  your  King  to  shame  and  sorrow  !  ” 

The  good  old  women  did  not  know  how  truly  they  spoke. 
The  little  fellow  just  born  was  to  be  called  Philip  Augustus. 

From  one  end  of  France  to  another,  even  to  the  humblest 
townships,  messengers  ran  to  carry  spontaneously  the  truimphal 
tidings.  Henry  II  saw  the  hope  vanish  which  he  had  formed 
when  he  had  had  the  marriage  of  his  son  with  Louis  VIPs 
daughter  concluded,  the  hope  of  seeing  his  son  one  day  unite 
in  his  hands  the  sceptres  of  France  and  England.  The  moral 

247 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


reproach  imputed  to  Henry  II  by  the  assassination  of  Thomas 
Becket  was  rendered  graver  still  by  the  disagreements  in  which 
the  English  King  was  involved  with  the  delicious  Eleanor, 
destined  decidedly  to  import  as  many  difficulties  as  charms 
into  the  lives  of  her  successive  husbands.  She  won  over  her 
sons.  In  open  revolt  against  their  father  they  took  refuge 
at  the  French  Court.  Louis  VII  hastened  to  recognize  Henry, 
the  eldest,  as  King  of  England,  and  to  have  a  seal  made  for  him  ; 
and  the  young  King  to  publish  acts  in  which  he  took  the  style 
of  reigning  monarch  under  the  name  of  Henry  III.  He  was 
supported  by  the  Pope,  with  whom  he  had  turned  to  account 
the  fact  that  the  murder  of  Thomas  Becket  had  not  yet  been 
avenged.  War  breaks  out  again.  The  feudatories  are  in¬ 
volved  in  it.  In  England  a  number  of  great  lords  rise  against 
their  suzerain.  The  King  of  Scotland  enters  into  the  struggle. 
But  Louis  VII  had  not  the  military  qualities,  the  energy,  or 
the  activity  of  his  vassal.  He  suffered  nothing  but  reverses. 
The  King  of  Scotland  was  defeated.  On  the  30th  September 
1174  peace  was  signed  at  Montlouis  (near  Tours).  Henry  II 
in  his  triumph  limited  his  demands  to  the  restitution  of  the 
castles  which  had  been  taken  from  him  in  Normandy.  But  he 
kept  his  wife  Eleanor  a  prisoner  for  several  years. 

In  the  last  year  of  his  life,  Louis  VII,  then  nearly  sixty 
years  old,  was  struck  with  paralysis  of  the  right  side.  He  then 
abandoned  the  cares  of  the  government  to  his  son  Philip 
Augustus — whom  he  had  had  consecrated  in  Reims  Cathedral 
on  the  1st  November  1179  by  Archbishop  William  “  with  the 
white  hands.” 

Numerous  barons  took  part  in  the  ceremony,  even  some 
foreign  princes  owing  allegiance  to  the  German  Crown.  The 
Count  of  Flanders — acting  as  Constable  of  France — carried 
the  royal  sword. 

We  can  form  a  fairly  clear  impression  of  the  character  of 
Louis  VII.  He  was  very  gentle  and  very  good  :  some  said 
to  the  degree  of  stupidity.  He  talked  familiarly  with  the 
first  comer.  His  palace,  open  to  all,  had  the  simplicity  of  a 
bourgeois  residence.  Conversing  with  the  Englishman,  Walter 
Map,  Louis  VII  said  pleasantly  :  “As  for  your  prince,  he  wants 
for  nothing  :  valuable  horses,  gold  and  silver,  silken  fabrics, 
248 


LOUIS  Vil 


precious  stones,  he  has  them  all  in  abundance.  At  the  Court  of 
France,  we  have  only  bread,  wine,  and  gaiety.”  The  German 
students  in  Paris  thought  good  to  laugh  about  it.  They  ridicule 
the  fact,  writes  another  Englishman,  John  of  Salisbury,  that 
the  King  of  France  converses  civilly  with  his  subjects  and  does 
not  live  separated  from  them  by  a  barrier  of  sergeants  and 
guards.  A  third  Englishman,  Henry  of  Hereford,  says  that 
Louis  VII  governed  peaceably  and  always  as  an  honourable 
man. 

However  amiable  might  be  the  character  of  the  King,  his 
government  was  not  lacking  in  firmness.  He  displayed  it, 
above  all,  in  the  exercise  of  justice.  Moreover,  during  his  reign 
of  forty-three  years  the  kingdom  prospered.  Peaceful  years 
predominated.  New  towns  were  multiplied  ;  old  towns  grew. 
Everywhere  progress  was  made  in  agriculture,  and  vast  forests 
were  cleared. 

Sources. — The  same  as  for  Chapters  XI  and  XIII. 


249 


CHAPTER  XIII 


PHILIP  AUGUSTUS 

Coalition  of  the  Nobles  of  the  realm.  Tragic  death  of  Henry  II, 
King  of  England.  Richard  Cœur  de  Lion.  The  Crusade  of  the 
two  Princes.  Deliverance  of  St.  Jean  d’Acre  (13th  July  1191). 
Captivity  of  Richard  Cœur  de  Lion.  Brigands  in  the  pay  of 
the  Princes.  Cadoc  and  Mercadier.  Ingeburg  of  Denmark. 
Assassination  of  Arthur  of  Brittany.  Conquest  of  Normandy. 
The  Fourth  Crusade  :  Villehardouin.  The  Latin  Empire  of 
Constantinople.  The  Albigensian  Crusade.  Bouvines  (27th 
July  1214).  Creation  of  Bailiffs  (Baillis).  Louis  VIII  in 
England.  The  works  ordered  by  Philip  Augustus  in  Paris. 
Death  of  Philip  Augustus.  Reign  of  Louis  VIII. 


PHILIP  AUGUSTUS  was  barely  fifteen  years  old  when 
he  mounted  the  throne  on  the  18th  September  1180 
— a  young  man  who  was  destined  to  preside  over  one 
of  the  most  fruitful  reigns  in  our  history.  With  a  strong, 
acute,  and  active  mind,  a  tenacious  will,  and  a  far-seeing  energy, 
he  had  the  qualities  of  a  great  prince  of  that  day.  He  will 
know  how  to  divert  the  turbulent  Nobility  towards  useful 
enterprises,  contribute  to  the  consolidation  of  the  communes, 
and  for  the  benefit  of  his  policy  to  assert  the  royal  authority 
in  distant  provinces.  44  I  desire  that  at  the  end  of  my  reign 
the  monarchy  shall  be  as  powerful  as  in  the  time  of  Charle¬ 
magne,”  and  there  wanted  little  to  the  fulfilment  of  his  wish. 

The  surname  44  Augustus  ”  he  got  from  the  fact  that  he 
was  born  in  August.  When  he  is  getting  old,  the  Chronicle  of 
Tours  will  sketch  this  picture  of  him  : 

44  Philip  was  a  handsome,  strapping  man,  with  a  pleasant 
face,  bald,  of  a  ruddy  complexion  and  with  a  temperament 
inclined  to  good  cheer.  He  was  a  skilful  engineer,  a  good 
Catholic,  farseeing  and  with  strong  opinions.  With  him 
there  mounted  on  the  judge’s  seat  right  and  justice.  Beloved 
of  Fortune,  fearful  for  his  life,  easy  to  rouse  and  appease,  he 
250 


PHILIP  AUGUSTUS 


was  very  severe  towards  the  Nobles  who  resisted  him,  and  took 
pleasure  in  fermenting  discords  between  them.  He  never, 
however,  made  an  enemy  die  in  prison.  He  loved  to  be  served 
by  insignificant  folk.”  It  is  easy  to  picture  this  man  with  the 
tall  figure,  broad  shoulders,  thin  and  bald,  and  with  the 
piercing  eyes. 

At  his  accession  he  found  the  powerful  Plantagenet,  Henry  II, 
King  of  England,  master  of  half  France  and  preparing  to  lay 
hands  on  Auvergne  and  Languedoc.  Philip  of  Alsace,  Count 
of  Flanders,  had  seen  his  power  growing,  not  only  by  his 
marriage  with  Isabelle  de  Vermandois,  who  had  brought  him 
Vermandois  and  Valois,  but  also  through  the  formidable 
economic  development  of  his  domains. 

To  the  wealth  of  the  County  of  Flanders  was  comparable 
that  of  the  County  of  Champagne.  The  markets  of  Troyes 
had  become  the  most  important  in  Europe.  Through  this 
and  through  his  magnificent  family  connections  the  power  of 
Henry  I,  the  Liberal,  Count  of  Champagne,  had  increased. 
His  sister  was  the  wife  of  Louis  VII.  One  of  his  brothers, 
William  of  the  White  Hands,  was  Archbishop  of  Reims  and 
Papal  Legate.  Another  of  his  brothers,  Thibaud  V,  Count  of 
Blois  and  of  Chartres,  was  Seneschal  of  France,  the  title  of  the 
chief  officer  of  the  Crown.  Lastly,  the  youngest,  Stephen,  Count 
of  Sancerre,  was  the  best  soldier  of  his  time.  Together  they 
formed  the  faction  of  the  “  Champenois,”  just  as  in  the  six¬ 
teenth  century  there  would  be  that  of  the  4 4  Lorrains  ”  (the 
Princes  of  Guise). 

Is  it  not  a  miracle  that  in  face  of  such  rivals,  Philip  Augustus 
should  in  his  small  domain  watered  by  the  Seine  and  the 
Oise,  have  been  during  the  course  of  his  reign  able  to  under¬ 
mine  the  English  power  and  to  double  the  extent  of  the 
royal  territory  ? 

And  first  of  all  there  was  his  marriage  with  Isabella  of 
Hainault — or  Elizabeth,  for  it  is  the  same  name,  Isabella  being 
the  Spanish  form — daughter  of  Count  Baldwin  V.  As  a  dowry 
she  brought  Artois  :  Arras,  St.  Omer,  Aire,  and  Hesdin.  The 
44  Champenois  ”  felt  their  power  weakening.  They  formed 
a  league  under  the  inspiration  of  Philip  Augustus’  own  mother, 
allying  themselves  with  the  Count  of  Flanders,  the  Count  of 

251 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Namur,  the  Count  of  Hainault,  and  the  Duke  of  Burgundy. 
The  conspirators  tried  to  secure  the  adherence  of  the  German 
Emperor  Frederick  Barbarossa.  Victory  was  certain,  they 
assured  him,  and  thus  he  would  be  able  to  extend  the  limits 
of  the  Empire  up  to  the  seas  round  Britain  :  here  is  already 
the  horrible  dream  of  William  II. 

War  broke  out  in  1181.  It  was  to  last  five  years. 

From  Crêpy-en- Valois  the  Count  of  Flanders  sent  troops 
to  attack  Senlis,  the  old  town  of  the  Capets  ;  but  Isabella  of 
Vermandois,  the  wife  of  the  Count  of  Flanders,  dies.  Philip 
Augustus  claims  her  heritage  and  begins  by  taking  possession 
of  it.  It  is  Vermandois  and  Valois.  He  sows  division  among 
the  allies.  He  brings  pressure  to  bear  on  his  wife  to  persuade 
her  father,  the  Count  of  Hainault,  to  abandon  the  coalition. 
He  threatens  to  repudiate  her.  “  In  1185,”  recounts  Gilbert 
de  Mons,  “  Queen  Isabella  became  odious  to  the  French, 
because  her  father  was  lending  assistance  to  the  Count  of 
Flanders  as  he  was  bound  to  do  (as  his  vassal).  The  Nobles 
of  the  Court  urged  the  King  to  divorce  her.  A  day  had  been 
fixed  on  which  the  repudiation  was  to  be  pronounced  at  Senlis, 
when  Queen  Isabella,  having  put  off  her  fine  raiment  and  put 
on  the  humblest  clothing,  walked  barefoot  through  the  streets 
of  the  town  calling  aloud  on  God  to  remove  from  her  royal 
spouse  his  pernicious  councillors.  The  people  were  touched. 
They  loved  their  good  Queen  :  and  here  they  come  before  the 
palace,  a  great  crowd  in  which  were  seen  beggars,  cripples, 
lepers.  They  cried  on  the  King  with  loud  and  lamentable 
groans  begging  him  to  retain  his  wife  ;  to  which  Philip 
Augustus  consented.  But  he  adopted  towards  her  a  cold, 
reserved  manner.  Even  in  her  own  country  he  treated  her 
as  a  stranger,  so  much  so  that,  when  in  the  following  year 
Baldwin  of  Hainault  had  come  to  see  his  daughter  at  Pontoise, 
Isabella  threw  herself  in  tears  at  his  feet,  imploring  him  to 
lend  his  aid  to  her  husband,  the  King,  against  the  Count  of 
Flanders  ;  and  Count  Baldwin  promised  to  do  all  he  could, 
saving  his  allegiance  to  the  Count  of  Flanders,  his  suzerain.” 

The  coalition  was  hard  hit  by  this  defection.  The  Count 
of  Flanders  demanded  peace.  The  King  of  France  obtained 
(July  1183),  besides  the  confirmation  of  the  cession  of  Artois, 
252 


PHILIP  AUGUSTUS 


his  wife’s  dowry,  sixty-five  castles  in  Vermandois,  and  Amiens, 
the  capital  of  Picardy. 

The  Duke  of  Burgundy  was  reduced  in  a  rapid  campaign. 

It  will  cause  surprise  that  Henry  II,  the  King  of  England, 
did  not  at  this  point  think  of  supporting  the  members  of  the 
coalition  against  the  French  prince  ;  but  at  this  time  he  was 
at  the  height  of  his  struggle  with  his  three  sons.  It  is  Philip 
who  attacks  the  English  King  ;  but  the  war,  begun  in  May 
1187,  came  to  an  end  in  June.  By  the  Treaty  of  Châteauroux 
(23rd  June)  Henry  II  ceded  to  Philip  Augustus  Issoudun  and 
the  lordship  of  Fréteval-en-Vendômois.  Philip’s  activity  is 
relentless.  He  receives  at  his  Court  Richard — the  future 
Cœur  de  Lion — who  has  become,  by  the  death  of  his  elder 
brother,  heir  to  the  crown  of  England.  He  makes  an  alliance 
with  the  German  Emperor  Barbarossa,  and  passing  through 
Tournai  takes  advantage  of  it  to  give  to  the  inhabitants  a 
communal  charter  and  to  obtain  from  them  a  contingent  of 
three  hundred  men.  And  it  is  well  known  how  great  is  to  be 
the  devotion  of  the  people  of  Tournai  to  the  French  Crown 
during  some  centuries. 

The  struggle  with  England  was  about  to  be  resumed  when 
there  was  spread  abroad  this  news  :  “  Saladin,  the  tyrant  of 
Egypt,  has  taken  Jerusalem,  and  has  carried  off  the  Holy 
Cross.”  It  is  the  epoch  when  heroic  passions  break  out  to 
the  strains  of  the  epic  poems. 

At  Gisors,  on  the  21st  January  1188,  Philip  and  Henry  II 
meet  and  give  each  other  the  kiss  of  peace.  Both  of  them 
take  the  cross.  What  a  farce  !  In  May,  Philip  invades 
the  domains  of  the  English  monarch,  seizes  Châteauroux  and 
Argentan.  War  spreads  over  the  various  lands  which  the 
Plantaganet  owns  in  France. 

Through  the  voice  of  her  legates,  Rome  utters  heart-rending 
cries.  And  what  about  the  Holy  War  ? 

The  interview  of  Bonmoulins  (18th  November  1188),  on  the 
borders  of  Perche,  only  emphasized  the  rivalry  of  the  two 
princes.  Richard,  the  son  of  Henry  II,  the  heir  to  the  English 
Crown,  appeared  there  at  the  side  of  Philip  Augustus.  When 
the  sovereigns  separated,  Richard  followed  the  King  to  Paris. 
Richard  attracted  to  his  suite  a  great  number  of  the  barons 

253 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


inhabiting  the  provinces  in  France  which  belonged  to  the 
English  allegiance.  Maine  was  invaded  by  the  troops  of  the 
King  of  France.  Henry  II  hastened  to  shut  himself  up  in 
Le  Mans.  He  was  ill,  tired,  disheartened.  On  the  12th  June 
1189,  Philip  Augustus,  accompanied  by  Richard,  appeared 
beneath  the  walls.  The  English  King  fled  from  the  burning 
town  as  far  as  the  castle  of  Fresnai-sur-Sarthe,  twenty  miles 
away.  After  Maine,  Philip  Augustus  conquered  Touraine. 
A  great  number  of  the  barons,  who  had  still  adhered  to  the 
side  of  the  English  monarch,  now  abandoned  him.  Henry  II 
resigned  himself  to  an  interview  with  his  youthful  adversary 
at  Colombiers,  in  the  environs  of  Tours,  on  the  4th  July  1189. 
44  The  two  Kings  met,”  we  read  in  the  Life  of  William  the 
Marshall  ;  44  all  the  great  barons  who  were  there  saw  plainly 
from  King  Henry’s  face  that  he  had  suffered  greatly.  The 
King  of  France  himself  saw  it,  and  said  to  him  :  4  Sire,  we  know 
that  you  cannot  stand,’  offering  him  a  seat.  But  Henry  refused 
to  be  seated,  saying  that  he  only  wished  to  know  what  was 
demanded  of  him  and  why  he  was  despoiled  of  his  territories.” 

The  two  Kings  agreed  on  peace  ;  after  which  they  set  out 
together  to  the  Crusade.  They  agreed  each  to  communicate 
to  the  other  the  names  of  their  secret  adherents  and  allies. 

At  Chin  on  Henry  II  had  to  take  to  bed.  44  He  wished  to 
know  the  names  of  those  who  had  been  against  him,”  we  read 
in  the  Life  of  the  Marshall.  44  He  therefore  sent  Master  Roger, 
the  Keeper  of  the  Seal,  to  the  King  of  France  to  demand  the 
promised  list.  Master  Roger  went  to  Tours,  where  he  copied 
the  list  of  those  who  had  promised  to  help  the  French.  On  his 
return  Henry  asked  him  the  names  :  4  Sire,’  replied  he  with  a 
sigh,  4  the  first  name  on  the  roll  is  that  of  your  son  Count  John.’  ” 

John  Lackland  was  the  only  son  of  Henry  II  who  had  seemed 
to  remain  faithful  to  him.  The  great  King  had  concentrated 
on  him  all  the  tenderness  of  his  wounded  heart. 

When  King  Henry,  pursues  the  chronicler,  heard  that  the 
being  he  loved  best  in  the  world  was  faithless  to  him,  he  could 
only  say  :  44  You  have  said  enough.”  He  turned  over  in  his 
bed.  He  was  seized  with  trembling  ;  the  blood  grew  torpid 
in  his  veins.  His  skin  grew  dark.  He  was  ill  for  three  days, 
uttering  unintelligible  words. 

254 


PHILIP  AUGUSTUS 


“  At  last  death  broke  his  heart,  and  a  jet  of  congealed  blood 
spurted  from  his  nose  and  mouth.  And  there  happened  to 
him  at  his  death  a  thing  which  had  never  before  happened  to 
so  great  a  baron.  They  had  nothing  wherewith  to  cover  him. 
He  remained  so  poor,  so  forlorn — quite  naked — that  he  had 
neither  linen  nor  wool  to  cover  him.”  The  poet  adds  :  “  It  is 
truly  said  that  the  dead  have  no  friends .” 

Richard  Cœur  de  Lion  hastened  to  take  advantage  of  his 
cordial  relations  with  the  King  of  France.  An  agreement 
was  made.  Philip  Augustus  restored  to  him  the  greater  part 
of  his  new  conquests  ;  he  kept  only  the  territory  of  Issodun 
and  Graçay-en-Berry.  The  two  Kings  renewed  their  vow  to 
set  out  for  the  Holy  Land  at  the  same  time.  And  the  departure 
was  made  from  Vézelay  on  the  4th  July  1190.  The  first  days 
seemed  like  a  scene  of  enchantment.  The  two  princes  at  the 
head  of  their  troops  descended  the  Rhone  valley  in  brilliant 
procession.  Young  girls  in  white  came  singing  to  present 
baskets  of  flowers.  But  after  Marseilles  the  good  understanding 
was  disturbed.  Richard  was  pompous,  haughty,  and  arrogant  ; 
Philip  was  reserved,  suspicious,  and  egotistical.  He  re¬ 
proached  Richard  for  breaking  his  promise  in  not  having 
married  his  sister  Alice  ;  to  which  Richard  replied  with  rude¬ 
ness.  The  quarrel  became  so  bitter  that,  in  March  1191,  to 
save  the  expedition,  the  two  princes  concluded  an  agreement, 
a  veritable  treaty  of  peace,  as  if  they  had  been  at  open  war. 
Its  terms  are  published  by  Rigord.  They  arrived  before 
St.  Jean  d’Acre.  The  town,  heroically  defended,  had  been 
beseiged  for  two  years  by  the  Christians.  The  Christian 
barons  in  the  East  were  divided  by  differences  which  the 
rivalry  between  Philip  and  Richard  was  to  increase  further. 
Guy  de  Lusignan,  King  of  Jerusalem,  conquered  at  Tiberius, 
found  a  redoubtable  rival  in  the  person  of  Conrad,  Marquis 
of  Montferrat.  Philip  took  the  side  of  Montferrat,  and 
Richard  that  of  Lusignan.  One  wonders  how  the  affair  would 
have  terminated  if  the  place  had  not  capitulated  on  the  13th 
July  1191.  It  was  plainly  a  first  success  ;  but  the  Crusade 
was  only  beginning.  Saladin  was  not  conquered  ;  he  was 
still  master  of  Jerusalem.  Then  Philip  Augustus  declared 
that  he  was  going  back  to  France.  He  declared  that  he  was 

255 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


very  ill.  The  air  of  Palestine  did  not  agree  with  him.  This 
illness  consisted  chiefly  in  the  question  of  the  succession  to 
the  Count  of  Flanders,  who  had  died  suddenly  before  St.  Jean 
d’Acre.  Philip  made  fine  promises  to  Cœur  de  Lion  :  far  from 
injuring  his  interests  in  the  West,  he  would  watch  over  them 
like  a  brother.  He  left  him  10,000  men  of  his  army  com¬ 
manded  by  the  Duke  of  Burgundy.  On  the  25th  December 
1191  the  King  of  France  had  returned  to  Fontainebleau. 

Philip  Augustus  at  once  prepared  his  attack  on  the  English 
Crown.  An  unheard-of  circumstance  proved  favourable  to 
him  beyond  his  dreams.  On  his  way  back  from  the  Holy 
Land,  Richard  Cœur  de  Lion  fell  into  the  hands  of  his  personal 
enemy,  Leopold,  Duke  of  Austria,  who  had  him  thrown  into 
prison.  The  two  princes  had  had  some  violent  quarrels  before 
St.  Jean  d’Acre.  Philip  invaded  Normandy  and  seized  the 
Vexin,  but  he  failed  before  Rouen.  Richard  Cœur  de  Lion 
had  just  been  delivered  by  Duke  Leopold  to  the  German 
Emperor.  Philip  insisted  with  this  latter  that  he  should 
indefinitely  keep  the  English  King  in  prison.  Frightful 
negotiations  were  begun.  The  details  thereof  were  to  be  read 
publicly  at  the  Diet  of  Mainz.  Philip  Augustus  and  John 
Lackland,  Richard’s  brother,  offered  the  Emperor  80,000 
marks  if  Richard  were  detained  until  the  feast  of  St.  Michael 
(29th  September),  and  150,000  if  Richard  were  delivered  up 
to  them.  Then  the  King  of  England  made  up  his  mind  to 
yield.  He  consented  to  all  the  demands  of  Henry  VI,  owned 
himself  his  vassal,  and  was  set  at  liberty.  On  the  23rd  March 
1194,  Richard  Cœur  de  Lion  entered  London,  whence  he 
hastened  to  cross  the  Channel  to  recover  his  Duchy  of 
Normandy. 

The  war  lasted  from  the  month  of  May  1194  to  April  1199. 
It  is  a  new  war  ;  in  many  ways  no  longer  a  feudal  war,  by 

reason  of  the  important  part  which  money  plays 
e  ngan  s.  — a  fight  between  the  pound  of  Tours  and  the 
pound  sterling.  And  there  are  then  seen  to  appear  on  the 
same  plane  as  the  noblest  knights,  those  men-at-arms  half 
brigands,  half  soldiers,  skilful  at  ambushes  and  ambuscades, 
at  bold  rescues,  the  Mercadiers  and  the  Cadocs. 

A  soldier  of  fortune,  at  the  head  of  his  bandits  the  “  Coter- 

256 


PHILIP  AUGUSTUS 


eaux  ”  (mercenaries),  Mercadier  became  the  brother-in-arms 
of  Cœur  de  Lion.  Through  the  whole  of  France,  from  Normandy 
to  Aquitaine,  the  King  and  the  adventurer  are  seen  riding 
together  cheek  by  jowl.  The  bulletins  in  which  Richard  in¬ 
formed  his  prelates  and  barons  of  his  victories  rarely  failed 
to  sing  the  praises  of  the  valiant  Mercadier.  Before  starting 
out  for  the  Holy  Land  he  had  given  into  his  keeping  seventeen 
castles  in  Quercy. 

Since  the  year  1183  Mercadier  had  been  seen,  traversing 
Limousin  with  his  companions,  plundering,  burning,  sacking, 
sparing  neither  woman  nor  child,  holding  to  ransom  towns 
and  monasteries. 

Mercadier  was  particularly  clever  at  surprising  places  in 
the  half-light  of  the  morning.  He  took  also  an  important 
part  in  the  affair  of  Gisors,  when  Philip  Augustus  was  defeated 
on  the  29th  September  1196.  But  the  stroke  for  which  the 
English  King  was  most  grateful  to  him  was  the  capture  of 
Milly  (19th  May  1197),  when  he  took  possession  of  Philippe  de 
Dreux,  the  Bishop  of  Beauvais  and  first  cousin  of  Philip 
Augustus,  one  of  the  most  redoubtable  warriors  of  his  time. 

As  a  curious  type  of  the  soldier  bishop,  this  Bishop  of  Beau¬ 
vais  might  well  have  served  as  model  to  the  contemporary 
poets  who  trace  in  the  chansons  de  geste  the  picturesque  silhouette 
of  Archbishop  Turpin.  Fie  divides  his  time  between  the  battle¬ 
field  and  the  sanctuaries  of  piety.  After  having  massacred 
the  adherents  of  the  King  of  England  and  delivered  towns 
and  villages  to  the  flames,  he  set  out  with  equal  ardour  on 
pilgrimage,  barefooted,  to  the  shrine  of  St.  James  of  Compostella. 
His  lieutenant,  an  archdeacon,  was  not  less  pious,  nor  less 
of  a  fighter  ;  the  two  companions  terrorized  the  whole  of 
Normandy. 

But  to  come  back  to  Mercadier.  In  the  course  of  the 
Flemish  campaign  of  1198  he  managed  to  make  a  large  fortune. 
The  country  was  rich,  the  markets  thronged.  What  seizures 
and  surprises  were  furnished  him  by  the  merchants  returning 
from  gatherings  at  Ypres  or  Bruges,  with  their  purses  weighted 
with  golden  florins  !  On  the  other  hand,  King  Richard  made 
him  a  gift  of  large  domains  in  Périgord.  Mercadier  rises  to 
the  height  of  some  fine  rôles.  He  makes  pious  benefactions 

R  257 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


to  monasteries  to  assure  himself  of  heaven,  and  is  anxious 
to  be  proclaimed  protector  of  monks.  He  was  a  freebooter 
placed  by  the  King  of  England  at  the  head  of  his  armies. 

We  will  not  follow  the  two  adversaries,  Philip  Augustus 
and  Richard  Cœur  de  Lion,  through  this  five  years’  struggle, 
a  jumble  of  turns  and  reversions  of  fortune.  It  was  marked, 
on  the  side  of  Richard,  by  the  building  of  the  Château- Gaillard 
(Saucy  Castle),  a  formidable  stronghold,  regarded  as  the  master¬ 
piece  of  the  defensive  fortresses  of  the  period.  The  war 
assumed  a  character  of  atrocious  cruelty.  On  both  sides 
prisoners  were  blinded  and  maimed.  “  The  King  of  England,” 
says  William  le  Breton,  “  had  three  knights  whom  he  had 
taken  prisoner  flung  down  from  the  rock  of  Château-Gaillard 
and  their  necks  and  bones  were  broken.  After  this  again  he 
had  the  eyes  of  fifteen  men  put  out  and  gave  them  as  guide 
one  who  had  had  one  eye  left  to  him,  so  that  he  could  conduct 
them  to  the  King  of  France.  Then  the  latter  inflicted  the 
same  injury  on  a  like  number  of  Englishmen  and  sent  them 
to  their  prince  led  by  the  wife  of  one  of  them,  and  he  had 
three  others  cast  down  from  the  summit  of  a  rock  so  that  he 
might  not  appear  inferior  to  Richard.” 

Cœur  de  Lion  had  great  qualities  as  a  soldier.  He  was 
daring  but  clear-sighted,  skilful  in  striking  great  blows  in  the 
right  place.  After  the  defeat  of  Courcelles-les-Gisors  (27th 
September  1198)  the  position  of  Philip  Augustus  seemed 
critical. 

The  Truce  of  Vernon,  concluded  through  the  pressing  inter¬ 
vention  of  Innocent  III,  imposed  hard  sacrifices  on  him.  Out 
of  all  his  conquests  he  kept  only  Gisors.  Seeing  his  fortunes 
suddenly  restored,  Richard  Cœur  de  Lion,  with  Mercadier, 
besieged  the  Viscount  of  Limoges,  a  rebellious  vassal,  in  his 
castle  of  Châlus-en-Limousin.  On  the  26th  March  1199  an 
arrow,  sped  from  the  great  tower,  wounded  the  English  King 
in  the  shoulder.  The  castle  was  taken  a  few  days  later  and  the 
companions  of  Cœur  de  Lion  hanged  all  the  defenders,  with  the 
exception  of  the  archer  who  had  wounded  the  King.  However, 
gangrene  had  set  in  in  the  wound,  and  Richard  was  informed 
that  there  was  no  hope  for  him.  The  English  King  asked  to 
see  his  murderer, 

258 


PHILIP  AUGUSTUS 


“  What  evil  had  I  done  to  thee  that  thou  shouldst  kill 
me  ?  ” 

“  Thou  hast  slain  with  thine  own  hand  my  father  and  my 
two  brothers,  and  wouldst  have  killed  me  also.  Take  what 
vengeance  thou  wouldst  ;  I  am  ready  to  suffer  all  the  cruelties 
thou  canst  invent,  provided  that  thou  thyself  art  to  die,  thou 
who  hast  done  so  many  and  so  great  evils  in  the  world.” 

Richard  replied  to  the  archer  that  he  would  pardon  him. 

“  I  want  not  thy  pardon.  I  am  happy  to  die.” 

This  young  hero  was  named  Pierre  Basile. 

“  Thou  shalt  live  in  spite  of  thyself,”  replied  the  King,  “  a 
living  witness  of  my  humaneness.” 

And  after  seeing  that  he  was  given  a  hundred  sous  in 
English  money,  the  King  had  him  set  at  liberty. 

Richard  died.  Hardly  was  he  dead  when  Mercadier  had 
Basile,  who  was  entirely  unsuspecting,  sought  out,  and  burnt 
alive  before  his  eyes. 

Richard  Cœur  de  Lion  was  of  an  enthusiastic,  chivalrous, 
most  attractive  character.  Himself  a  poet,  he  showed  himself 
generous  to  the  trouvères  and  troubadours,  and  they  have 
celebrated  in  magnificent  words  his  brilliant  qualities. 

John  Lackland,  the  youngest  brother  of  Richard,  succeeded 
him.  He  was  as  knavish  and  cunning  as  his  brother  had 
shown  himself  open  and  chivalrous  ;  cruel,  greedy,  sensual 
and  wicked,  but  he  had  the  qualities  of  his  race.  He  had  the 
intellect  of  a  politician  and  the  shrewdness  of  a  diplomat.  He 
was  more  refined  than  the  majority  of  the  men  of  his  day,  but 
his  vices  made  him  odious. 

John  had  had  a  rival  to  the  throne,  the  young  Arthur  of 
Brittany,  son  of  the  deceased  Geoffrey,  eldest  brother  of  John 
Lackland,  and  Constance,  Duchess  of  Brittany.  Had  Geoffrey 
survived  Richard,  all  the  latter’s  domains  would  have  come 
to  him.  In  virtue  of  the  right  of  succession,  Arthur  of  Brittany 
claimed  the  crown  which  his  father  would  have  worn,  and 
the  support  of  Philip  Augustus.  In  his  quality  of  suzerain 
the  King  of  France  proclaimed  young  Arthur  heir  to  Normandy 
and  Brittany,  which  were  held  from  him.  War  began.  It  was 
proceeding  with  varying  fortunes  when  suddenly  the  King  of 
France  seemed  to  be  paralysed.  He  was  struggling  with  the 

259 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


difficulties  which  his  conflict  with  Ingeburg  of  Denmark  was 
raising  for  him. 

It  is  a  strange  story.  Isabella  of  Hainault,  the  first  wife 
of  Philip  Augustus,  had  died  at  the  age  of  nineteen  (1190)  after 

having  given  birth  to  a  son.  Philip  Augustus 
8  asked  Knut  II,  the  King  of  Denmark,  for  the  hand 

of  his  sister  Ingeburg,  asking  him  at  the  same  time  to  yield  to 
him  the  claims  on  the  crown  of  England  which  he  had  from 
Sweyn  II  and  to  help  him  in  substantiating  them.  It  was  the 
constant  desire  of  Philip  Augustus  to  repeat  the  expedition  of 
William  the  Conqueror.  The  young  princess,  aged  eighteen 
years,  arrived  in  France  on  the  14th  August  1193,  and  Philip 
married  her  at  Amiens.  He  himself  was  twenty-eight  years  of 
age.  Ingeburg  was  fair  and  slender.  There  was  a  disconcerting 
charm  in  her  blue  green  eyes,  that  smooth  blue  of  the  Northern 
seas  when  the  sky  is  very  clear.  Contemporaries  speak  of  her 
grace  and  beauty.  Philip  Augustus  had  received  her  with 
evident  gladness,  but  behold,  on  the  day  after  the  wedding, 
when  the  coronation  was  to  take  place,  Philip  draws  away  from 
her,  waving  his  hands  as  though  repelling  a  phantom  and 
giving  the  strangest  signs  of  horror  and  repulsion.  He  grew 
pale  and  trembled.  What  had  passed  between  husband  and 
wife  during  the  night  ?  This  will  never  be  known.  Sorcerers, 
so  the  doctor  and  chaplain  of  the  King  will  say,  had  prevented 
the  consummation  of  the  marriage,  and  this  is  the  reason  which 
Philip  Augustus  will  put  forward  before  the  Roman  Court. 
The  King  wanted  to  return  the  young  woman  immediately  to 
the  Danish  mission  which  had  conducted  her,  but  they  replied 
that  their  part  in  the  matter  was  finished.  The  King  had 
Ingeburg  shut  up  in  the  Convent  of  St.  Maur.  He  came  there 
to  pay  her  a  visit,  crossed  the  threshold  of  the  room,  and  im¬ 
mediately  came  out  again.  “  It  is  impossible  for  me,”  he  said. 
“  to  live  with  this  woman.”  A  complacent  assembly  of  nobles 
and  prelates  meeting  at  Compiègne  pronounced  a  divorce  (5th 
November  1193)  under  the  eternal  pretext  of  ties  of  relation¬ 
ship.  The  great-grandmothers  of  Isabella,  the  first  wife  of 
Philip  Augustus,  and  Ingeburg  were  supposed  to  have  been 
sisters,  daughters  of  Charles  the  Good,  Count  of  Flanders. 
Now  Charles  the  Good  had  never  had  any  children.  In- 
260 


PHILIP  AUGUSTUS 

nocent  III  treated  the  proceedings  at  Compiègne  as  mere 
buffoonery. 

Poor  Ingeburg,  strictly  cloistered,  did  not  know  what  was 
going  on.  She  neither  spoke  nor  understood  French.  Those 
who  had  accompanied  her  from  Denmark  were  kept  away  from 
her.  Even  in  the  convent  she  was  treated  wretchedly.  When 
the  Archbishop  of  Reims  presented  himself  before  her  to  notify 
her,  through  an  interpreter,  of  the  decision  which  had  been 
made,  the  young  wife  burst  into  tears,  and  then  recovering 
herself,  she  exclaimed  in  Latin,  44  Mala  Francia  !  ”  (Wicked 
France  !),  and  added  44  Roma  !  ”  to  indicate  that  she  appealed 
to  the  Pope. 

By  order  of  the  King,  Ingeburg  was  transferred  to  a  depend¬ 
ency  of  the  Abbey  of  Cisoing,  in  the  diocese  of  Tournai,  where 
she  continued  to  be  disgracefully  treated.  She,  who  had 
brought  to  her  husband,  besides  her  shadowy  claims  to  the 
English  Crown,  a  fine  dowry  in  very  real  gold,  was  obliged  to 
sell  some  of  her  furniture  and  clothes  for  her  living  expenses. 
Philip  Augustus  obstinately  refused  to  see  her  again.  Knut  II, 
on  his  part,  made  a  formal  protest  before  the  Sovereign  Pontiff. 
Philip  Augustus  took  every  step  to  impede  the  course  of  the 
law,  had  the  Danish  envoys  driven  from  Rome,  and  then 
arrested  outside  Dijon,  deprived  of  their  correspondence,  and 
thrown  into  prison.  In  his  anger  against  the  young  wife  who 
defied  him,  Philip  made  her  confinement  still  more  rigorous. 
From  the  convent  where  she  was,  he  had  her  transferred  to  a 
fortress.  One  can  imagine  what  followed.  The  King  of  France, 
not  allowing  himself  to  be  checked  by  the  papal  decision  which 
declared  the  sentence  of  divorce  passed  at  Compiègne  null  and 
void,  set  himself  to  seek  another  wife.  The  search  was  not 
easy.  The  parents,  dazzled  by  so  magnificent  an  alliance, 
eagerly  followed  up  the  first  parleys,  but  the  young  ladies 
proved  recalcitrant.  44  I  know  how  the  King  of  France  behaved 
to  the  King  of  Denmark’s  sister,”  says  the  daughter  of  the 
Count  Palatine,  44  and  this  example  scares  me.”  And  she 
married  Henry  of  Saxony.  A  similar  refusal  was  made  by 
Jane  of  England,  who  was  to  become  the  Countess  of  Toulouse. 
Another  maiden  from  Germany  was  dispatched  on  her  journey 
by  her  parents  with  a  fine  retinue  apparelled  for  the  wedding. 

261 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


But  she  arranged  to  pass  through  the  territory  of  a  lord  who 
was  in  love  with  her.  The  gallant  formed  an  ambush,  carried 
off  the  beauty,  who  made  a  laughing  struggle  and  married  him. 
In  the  end  Philip  Augustus  married  Agnes  de  Méranie,  the 
daughter  of  a  Bavarian  lord.  Rome  issues  an  interdict,  and  with 
the  greater  justice  as,  if  there  were  no  ties  of  kindred  within 
the  prohibited  degrees  between  Philip  and  Ingeburg,  these  did 
exist  between  him  and  Agnes. 

Here,  then,  is  the  King  of  France  entangled  once  again  in 
the  complications  of  a  sentence  of  interdict.  The  bells  are 
silent  in  all  the  churches,  the  churches  shut  their  doors  to 
hymns  and  prayers  ;  the  mournful  graveyards  refuse  the 
dead.  The  corpses  abandoned  by  the  sides  of  the  roads  filled 
the  land  with  stench  and  terror.  Then,  too,  Philip  Augustus 
decided  to  sign  a  treaty  with  John  Lackland  on  the  22nd  May 
1200  at  Le  Goulet.  Moreover,  the  treaty  was  not  too  un¬ 
favourable  to  him.  He  received  the  County  of  Evreux  and 
a  sum  of  20,000  pounds  sterling.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
King  of  France  consented  to  the  marriage  of  his  son  Louis — 
later  Louis  VIII — to  Blanche  of  Castile,  the  niece  of  John 
Lackland.  Saint  Louis  was  the  son  of  this  marriage.  John 
Lackland  came  to  Paris,  where  a  sumptuous  reception  was 
arranged  for  him  ;  but  at  the  end  of  the  year  the  war  was 
resumed. 

In  Aquitaine,  John  Lackland  had  by  the  sordidness  and 
egotism  of  his  policy  very  soon  brought  the  chief  barons  to 
rise  against  him.  He  had  taken  from  Hugh  the  Brown  (le 
Brun),  the  son  of  the  Comte  de  la  Marche,  his  fiancée,  Isabelle 
Taillefer,  to  marry  her  himself  (30th  August  1200).  The  lords 
of  Aquitaine  appealed  from  their  immediate  suzerain  to  their 
superior  suzerain,  i.e.  the  King  of  France.  John  was  summoned 
to  appear  in  Paris  before  the  Court  of  Peers.  It  was  the  first 
great  example  of  those  appeals  made  by  Aquitaine  which  are 
to  play  an  important  rôle  during  the  following  century  and 
are  to  prove  a  source  of  inextricable  difficulties  for  the  English 
Crown.  The  sentence  of  the  Court  of  Paris  was  delivered  in 
1202,  probably  on  the  28th  April.  John  Lackland  was  found 
to  be  at  fault.  Information  as  to  the  details  of  the  judgment 
is,  unfortunately,  not  forthcoming,  and  even  its  exact  text  is 
262 


PHILIP  AUGUSTUS 


not  known.  44  The  Court  of  France,”  says  Raoul,  Abbot  of 
the  Cistercian  monastery  of  Coggeshall,  44  declared  that  the 
King  of  England  should  be  deprived  of  all  the  fiefs  which  he 
held  from  the  King  of  France,  for  not  having  fulfilled  the 
conditions  on  which  the  said  fiefs  were  held,  and  for  having 
disobeyed  his  suzerain  in  almost  every  way.” 

This  is  an  important  date.  From  this  day  the  thoughts 
of  the  Kings  of  France  will  constantly  revert  to  this  solemn 
act  by  which  the  English  Kings  were  despoiled  of  their  French 
possessions. 

Philip  invaded  Normandy,  but  the  young  Arthur  was 
defeated  at  Mirebeau  and  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  English 
monarch  (31st  July  1202).  Here  again  a  frightful  tragedy  is 
enacted.  In  the  tower  of  Rouen  John  Lackland  assassinated 
his  nephew  with  his  own  hands  (April  1203).  The  news  spread, 
emphasized  with  horrible  details.  And  there  was  seen  growing 
more  marked  a  movement  of  reprobation  similar  to  that  which 
had  almost  overthrown  Henry  II  after  the  assassination  of 
Thomas  Becket.  It  is  the  time  at  which  Philip  Augustus 
seizes  Château- Gaillard  (6th  March  1204),  the  formidable 
fortress  which  formed  the  key  of  Normandy.  The  Capetian 
found  himself  master  of  the  whole  province  in  two  months. 
The  ability  of  the  French  King  had  been  seconded  by  the 
indifference  of  John  Lackland,  who  did  not  think  it  necessary 
to  interrupt  a  chess  party  to  receive  the  Norman  envoys. 

Philip  Augustus  acted  with  equal  decision  in  Poitou  and 
Aquitaine.  One  must  admire  the  efficacious  policy  of  the 
young  prince  who  destroyed  in  three  years  the  work  so  labori¬ 
ously  built  up  by  William  the  Conqueror,  Henry  Beauclerc, 
and  Henry  II.  Rarely  have  such  important  events  been 
brought  about  by  such  simple  means,  operating  with  such 
clear-sightedness  and  precision. 

In  order  to  gain  the  necessary  respite  the  King  had  made 
a  show  of  yielding  to  the  Pope  on  the  subject  of  his  divorce 
from  Ingeburg.  In  March  1201  he  had  appeared,  together 
with  the  Queen,  at  Soissons,  before  an  assembly  of  judges 
presided  over  by  the  papal  delegate.  The  envoys  of  Knut  II 
spoke  with  vehemence,  reminding  Philip  Augustus  of  his 
promises  and  oaths.  The  King’s  advocates  replied  in  subtle 

263 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


and  eloquent  speeches.  The  poor  Queen  was  much  embarrassed 
in  her  effort  to  answer  their  dialectics  confused  with  Latin 
phraseology,  when  from  the  midst  of  the  assembly  there  rose 
an  unknown  clerk.  He  pleaded  the  cause  of  innocence  with 
so  much  force  and  emotion  that  the  assembly  was  overcome. 
Sessions  succeeded  each  other.  The  cardinals  could  find  no 
motive  for  divorce,  when,  to  the  general  surprise,  Philip 
Augustus  suddenly  declared  that  the  Queen  was  completely 
restored  to  favour.  He  went  towards  her,  gave  her  his  hand, 
led  her  to  the  bottom  of  the  steps,  took  her  up  behind  him  on 
his  horse,  and  departed  in  the  style  of  a  youthful  lover.  The 
interdict  was  removed.  Agnes  de  Méranie,  discarded  in  her 
turn,  died  at  the  Castle  of  Poissy  ;  but  now  John  Lackland  is 
conquered  and  Philip  wants  to  repudiate  Ingeburg  again.  He 
has  her  shut  up  in  the  tower  of  Etampes  and  closely  guarded. 
He  wants  to  get  her  herself  to  demand  a  divorce  to  enter 
religion.  The  material  privations  and  the  moral  tortures  to 
which  the  unhappy  Queen  was  exposed  gave  rise  to  fears  for 
her  health.  She  is  insulted  by  those  who  serve  her.  She  is 
deprived  of  the  consolation  of  the  practice  of  her  religion. 
“Father,”  she  writes  to  the  Pope,  “I  look  to  you  that  I  may 
not  perish.  It  is  not  because  of  my  body,  but  my  soul  that  I 
am  troubled.  I  am  dying  every  day.”  She  asks  the  Sovereign 
Pontiff  to  annul  beforehand  all  statements  or  oaths  which  may 
be  forced  from  her  by  violence.  In  her  calm  resistance  the 
young  and  captive  queen  acted  admirably.  “  Young  in  years,” 
writes  Stephen  of  Tournai,  “  she  had  the  prudence  of  a  head 
whitened  by  age.”  The  Papacy  was  magnificently  represented 
by  Innocent  III,  who  displayed  in  this  painful  drama  his  lofty 
wisdom,  his  resolute  energy,  and  his  great  goodness.  The 
King  of  France  had  already  broached  negotiations  for  a  fourth 
marriage  with  the  daughter  of  the  Landgrave  of  Thuringia, 
when  as  a  submissive  son  of  the  Church  he  yielded  and  took 
back  his  wife  (April  1213).  There  was  general  rejoicing. 
Ingeburg  regained  her  position  as  Queen  of  France  and  was 
never  again  deprived  of  it. 

For  twenty  years,  the  time  to  which  his  first  meeting  with 
Ingeburg  went  back,  Philip  Augustus  had  desired  on  several 
occasions,  and  seemingly  quite  sincerely,  to  be  reconciled  with 
264 


PHILIP  AUGUSTUS 


her,  and  each  time  he  had  felt  himself  repelled  by  an  uncon¬ 
querable  aversion.  Now  we  see  him  in  the  fifties.  Age  softens 
the  whims  of  love  and  puts  political  considerations  in  the 
forefront.  After  having  driven  the  English  from  France, 
Philip  Augustus  resumed  the  same  plans  which  had  prompted 
him  to  demand  the  hand  of  Ingeburg,  so  that  his  wife  and  the 
King  of  Denmark  and  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  had  become 
necessary  to  him  once  more. 

As  for  Ingeburg  during  the  many  years  she  still  lived — for 
she  only  died  in  1237 — she  occupied  herself  with  noble  works 
of  beneficence  in  which  shone  forth  the  beauty  of  her  soul, 
“  more  beautiful  still,”  says  Stephen  of  Tournai,  “  than  her 
radiant  countenance.” 

To  return  to  the  contemporary  events  of  the  Fourth  Crusade. 
It  was  decided  on  at  a  tournament  at  Ecri-sur- Aisne  at  which 

the  barons  of  Champagne  had  jousted  against 

Villehardouin°^^e  Flemings  and  Picardese.  After  a  plentiful 

exchange  of  buffets  and  blows,  they  had  frater¬ 
nized  and  decided  to  attack  the  Saracens.  Fulk,  the  Vicar  of 
Neuilly-sur-Marne,  was  its  preacher,  recalling  by  his  passionate 
eloquence  both  Peter  the  Hermit  and  Saint  Bernard.  He 
came  to  preach  at  Champeaux,  where  a  market  was  held  in  a 
cemetery.  44  There,”  writes  Jacques  de  Vitry,  44  usurers,  light 
women,  the  greatest  sinners,  after  having  despoiled  themselves 
of  their  garments,  threw  themselves  at  the  preacher’s  feet 
confessing  their  sins.  Sick  people  had  themselves  carried  to 
him.  The  crowd  rushed  after  him,  destroying  his  robe  to 
share  its  shreds  among  them.  Vainly  he  drove  away  the  more 
impatient  with  a  stick.  He  could  not  protect  his  garments 
from  the  piety  of  the  spectators.  Every  day  he  required  a 
new  cassock.”  He  must  have  given  the  cross  to  more  than 
200,000  pilgrims. 

Once  more,  crowds  of  the  people  are  seen  departing  without 
any  experienced  leader  and  perishing  on  the  way  in  the  most 
lamentable  manner.  The  real  Crusade  was  formed  of  feudal 
barons.  Thibaud  of  Champagne  being  dead,  Philip  Augustus 
advised  that  Boniface  de  Montferrat,  the  brother  of  the  old 
rival  of  Guy  de  Lusignan,  should  be  taken  as  leader. 

However  courageous  they  might  be,  the  knights  who  joined 

265 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


in  this  new  expedition  to  the  East  were  not  the  rude  soldiers 
of  the  First  Crusade.  We  find  among  them  trouvères  and 
troubadours  who  compose  pretty  love  songs,  both  verse  and 
music,  as  a  farewell  to  their  lady,  while  she  sews  on  the 
shoulders  of  their  cloaks  the  white  cross  of  the  Crusaders. 
Hearken  to  Robert  de  Blois  : 

Departure  from  the  sweet  country 

Where  the  fair  one  is,  has  made  me  very  sad, 

I  have  had  to  leave  her  whom  I  have  most  loved, 

To  serve  the  Lord  God,  the  Creator  ; 

And  none  the  less  I  remain  in  her  love, 

For  all  to  her  remain  of  my  heart  and  my  thought  ; 

If  my  body  is  going  to  serve  Our  Lord, 

I  have  not  for  this  my  good  love  forgotten. 

Another,  among  the  most  valiant  captains  of  the  Crusade, 
Villehardouin,  Marshall  of  Champagne,  has  given  a  vivid 
description  of  the  expedition. 

Like  the  previous  expeditions,  the  Crusade  had  Jerusalem 
as  its  first  objective.  Six  ambassadors,  among  whom  was 
Villehardouin,  were  sent  to  Venice  to  settle  the  conditions  on 
which  the  flourishing  Republic  of  Merchants  would  transport 
the  Crusaders  by  sea.  The  messengers  were  received  by  the 
Doge  Dandolo.  The  Venetian  Government  agreed  to  put 
vessels  at  the  disposal  of  the  French  armies  at  a  price  of  four 
marks  per  horse  and  two  marks  per  man. 

Venice  was  to  receive  besides  half  of  the  conquests.  Al¬ 
ways  business  men  !  It  was  also  decided  that  the  disem¬ 
barkation  should  take  place  in  Egypt  and  that  the  Crusaders 
should  march  directly  on  Babylon  (Cairo),  “  because  the  Turks 
could  be  destroyed  better  by  way  of  Babylon  than  any  other 
land.”  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Cairo,  was  the  centre  of  the 
Mohammedan  power,  a  decision  which  will  explain  the  Crusade 
of  Saint  Louis.  And  given  the  end  that  the  French  knights 
had  in  view,  this  plan  was  well  conceived  ;  but  they  after¬ 
wards  allowed  themselves  to  be  circumvented  by  the  cunning 
Venetians,  who  were  interested  in  the  re-establishment  on  the 
Byzantine  throne  of  Isaac  the  Angel,  driven  from  it  by  his  sub¬ 
jects.  And  the  French  knights  could  at  the  same  time  gratify 
an  old  feeling  of  resentment  against  the  Byzantines,  for  it  was 
266 


PHILIP  AUGUSTUS 

a  widespread  opinion  in  France  that  the  Greeks  of  Constanti¬ 
nople  had  caused  the  check  of  the  previous  expeditions  by  their 
perfidious  policy. 

The  feudal  army  arrived  at  San  Stefano  on  the  23rd  June 
1203. 

“  And  when  they  got  a  full  view  of  Constantinople,”  says 
Villehardouin,  “  which  they  had  never  before  seen,  they  thought 
that  there  could  not  be  so  rich  a  city  in  the  world.  When  they 
saw  those  high  walls  and  the  rich  towers  which  enclosed  her, 
and  those  rich  palaces  and  lofty  churches  of  which  there  were 
so  many  that  they  could  not  believe  their  eyes  ;  and  they  saw 
the  length  and  breadth  of  the  city,  which  was  queen  of  all  others  ; 
you  must  know  that  there  was  none  so  bold  but  that  he 
trembled  ;  and  it  was  no  wonder  that  they  were  moved,  for 
never  had  so  great  a  feat  been  attempted  by  any  people  since 
the  history  of  the  world  began.” 

The  usurper,  Alexius  III,  fled.  Hardly  were  the  Crusaders 
masters  of  the  town  than  the  multitude  of  soldiers  demanded 
a  march  on  Jerusalem.  But  the  leaders  already  discovered  a 
new  field  for  their  activities.  Isaac  the  Angel  and  his  son 
Alexius  IV  not  having  kept  their  promises,  the  agreement 
between  them  and  the  Crusaders  was  considered  to  be  broken. 
Quarrels  between  Greeks  and  Latins  led  to  fights.  Part  of 
Constantinople  was  given  to  the  flames.  After  having  left  the 
town  the  French  returned  to  it  as  victors  (11th  April  1204). 
Some  rebels  had  seized  Isaac  and  his  son  and  killed  them. 
Baldwin  IX,  Count  of  Flanders,  was  proclaimed  Emperor. 
Dressed  in  the  imperial  robes,  i.e.  in  the  chlamys  lacquered 
with  gold  eagles,  silk  hose,  and  purple  sandals  enriched  with 
precious  stones,  he  was  crowned  at  St.  Sofia  (9th  May  1204). 
The  Byzantine  Empire  was  divided  among  the  French  knights. 
Boniface  of  Montferrat  was  nominated  King  of  Thessalonica 
and  Macedonia. 

The  institutions  of  French  feudalism  were  seen  planted 
and  taking  root  on  the  shores  of  the  Bosphorus  as  they  had  done 
two  centuries  earlier  on  the  parched  plains  of  Syria.  Within 
the  limits  of  the  old  Empire  of  the  “  Basileus  ”  there  is  formed 
a  new  France  ( nova  Francia)  ;  the  expression  is  due  to  Honorius 
II  (letter  to  the  Queen  of  France,  20th  May  1224).  At  the 

267 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

French  Court  of  Constantinople  the  pleasant  songs  of  the 
trouvère,  Quene  de  Béthune,  and  the  melodious  verses  of  the 
troubadour,  Rambaud  de  Vaqueras,  are  heard  : 

A  song  easy  to  understand 
Will  I  make,  for  it  is  my  trade, 

So  that  each  may  learn  it 
And  sing  it  at  his  will.  .  .  . 

(Quene  de  Béthune.) 

Villehardouin  received  the  fief  of  Mosynopolis.  About  1210 
he  dictated  his  History  of  the  Conquest  of  Constantinople  for  the 
information  of  those  belonging  to  him,  a  picturesque  precursor 
of  the  good  lord  of  Joinville,  like  him  a  native  of  Champagne. 
The  French  conquest  extended  over  Morea,  Achaia,  and  Greece. 
One  finds  Dukes  of  Athens  and  of  the  Archipelago.  These  good 
knights  from  France  drew  up  codes,  founded  towns,  struck 
coins  with  their  effigy  or  arms,  and  with  a  liberalism  astonish¬ 
ing  for  that  period  maintained  a  reciprocal  tolerance  among 
the  enemy  cults. 

The  Latin  Empire  of  Constantinople  disappeared  in  1261, 
but  the  feudal  lords  had  taken  root  in  the  country.  The 
excellent  Catalan  chronicler,  Ramon  Muntaner,  will  write  still 
about  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century  :  “  The  princes  of 
Morea  choose  their  wives  from  the  best  French  houses. 
Their  vassals,  barons,  and  knights  do  the  same,  only  marrying 
wives  descended  from  French  knights.  It  was  said,  too,  that 
the  noblest  knighthood  in  the  world  was  the  French  chivalry 
of  Morea.  As  good  French  was  spoken  there  as  in  Paris.” 

Philip  Augustus  had  remained  a  stranger  to  these  brilliant 
events  ;  but  in  France  itself  he  worked  successfully  for  the 
greatness  of  his  country.  So  great  already  was  his  power 
that  his  activity  extended  to  Germany,  where  he  intervened  in 
the  struggle  between  the  Guelfs  (the  House  of  Saxony)  and  the 
Ghibellines  (the  House  of  Hohenstaufen). 

By  his  cruelties  and  exactions  John  Lackland  had  stirred 
up  the  English  clergy.  Innocent  III  placed  him  under  the  ban 
of  Europe  (January  1213).  Philip  Augustus  was  charged  by 
the  Pope  with  the  task  of  driving  John  from  a  throne  which 
he  was  no  longer  deemed  worthy  to  fill  and  of  placing  on  it  his 
own  son,  the  future  Louis  VIII.  Philip  Augustus  prepared 
268 


PHILIP  AUGUSTUS 


for  a  descent  on  England,  but  John  was  reconciled  with  the 
papal  throne,  acknowledging  himself  as  its  vassal.  At  the 
moment  of  embarking,  Philip  Augustus  was  stopped  by  the 
legate  of  Innocent  II.  He  submitted,  as  he  said,  willingly,  but 
in  his  own  mind  he  only  postponed  his  plans. 

His  attention  was  for  the  moment  required  for  one  of 
the  most  important  events  in  our  history,  the  Albigensian 
War. 

For  many  years  the  south  of  France  had  been  inclined 
towards  religious  ideas  alien  from  Roman  orthodoxy.  It  is  a 

question  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Albigenses  and 

gensûn  War  °f  the  Vaudois.  The  Albigensian  doctrine 

was  also  known  as  the  heresy  of  the  Cathari, 
from  the  Greek  KaOapoi ,  the  pure. 

The  Visigoths  who  had  settled  in  the  south  of  France  were 
Arians,  and  did  not  admit  the  divinity  of  Christ.  Their 
kingdom  was  invaded  by  Catholic  dukes,  counts,  and  bishops. 
But  the  time  of  humble  and  poor  missionaries  was  already  past, 
the  time  when  the  leaders  of  souls  influenced  the  people  because 
they  were  themselves  of  “  the  people.”  Moreover,  the  Arian 
ideas  continued  to  spread  at  the  centre  of  the  mass  of  the  people, 
and  to  take  there  a  form  more  and  more  concrete,  in  the 
direction  of  the  pagan  beliefs  in  good  and  bad  spirits.  They 
were  applied  to  the  Gospels,  whence  came  the  conception  of  a 
principle  of  Good,  namely,  God,  and  of  a  principle  of  Evil, 
Satan,  the  organizers  of  the  World.  It  was  the  old  Manichæan 
dualism. 

Such  seems  to  have  been  the  foundation  of  the  heresy  of 
the  Cathari.  As  to  precise  details,  it  is  difficult  to  find  them, 
contemporaries  having  made  every  effort  to  remove  all  trace 
of  them.  We  can,  nevertheless,  conclude  from  certain  formulas 
of  solemn  renunciation  that  the  Cathari  recognized  a  class  of 
elect  among  men,  the  Perfect ,  whom  God  had  distinguished 
from  the  mass  of  believers.  In  this  respect  they  seem  to  have 
been  precursors  of  the  Jansenists.  The  Cathari,  like  the 
Vaudois,  preached  scorn  of  ecclesiastical  dignities  and  pro¬ 
tested  against  the  tithes  demanded  by  Churchmen  from  the 
labourer.  With  progress  in  material  affairs  and  the  departure 
of  the  Catholic  leaders  for  the  Crusades,  the  sects  spread. 

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THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


From  the  land  of  the  Albigenses  they  prevailed  in  Languedoc 
from  Toulouse  to  Beaucaire. 

As  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Vaudois  it  had  its  origin  in  Lyons, 
where  it  had  been  taught  during  the  last  quarter  of  the  twelfth 
century  by  a  rich  merchant,  Pierre  Valdo,  a  sort  of  saint  and 
apostle.  After  having  distributed  his  goods  to  the  poor,  Valdo 
had  set  to  work  to  preach  in  the  streets,  in  the  public  squares, 
and  at  the  cross-roads.  His  disciples,  of  whom  there  were  soon 
a  great  number,  were  known  as  the  “  Poor  Men  of  Lyons.” 
They  spread  as  far  as  Montpelier  in  the  South  and  Strasburg 
in  the  North.  Their  doctrine  was  a  reversion  to  the  primitive 
teaching  of  the  Church.  They  did  not  admit  the  real  presence 
of  Christ  in  the  host,  or  the  cult  of  the  saints,  or  purgatory, 
or  the  powers  attached  to  ecclesiastical  ordination.  Valdo 
and  his  disciples — the  Vaudois — taught,  in  short,  at  the  end 
of  the  twelfth  century  the  principles  which  were  afterwards 
to  be  the  basis  of  the  Protestant  religion.  Let  us  add  that 
in  the  eyes  of  the  clerics  the  Vaudois  appeared  less  “  perverse  ” 
than  the  Cathari  or  Albigenses  proper.  We  are  not  speaking 
of  the  Crusading  knights,  who  will  make  no  distinction  in  the 
South  between  the  Vaudois  and  the  Cathari,  or  indeed  between 
Vaudois,  Cathari,  and  Catholics. 

In  the  year  1145  St.  Bernard  had  undertaken  to  fight 
against  heresy.  In  1163  the  Council  of  Tours  denounced  the 
dangers  which  the  Faith  suffered  from  the  Albigensian  doctrine 
which  was  gnawing  “  like  a  cancer  ”  into  a  part  of  France. 
It  was  putting  division  among  citizens,  bringing  discord  into 
the  bosom  of  families.  In  1178  the  progress  of  the  new  religion 
was  so  great  that  Louis  VII  and  Henry  II  had  projected  a 
crusade  against  it,  but  this  expedition  reduced  itself  to  a 
missionary  progress.  It  had  but  mediocre  results.  The  Count 
of  Foix,  the  Viscount  of  Béarn,  the  Viscount  of  Béziers,  the 
Count  of  Comminges  declared  in  favour  of  the  heretics. 
Finally,  Raymond  VI,  who  in  1196  had  succeeded  his  father 
Raymond  V,  Count  of  Toulouse,  declared  himself  an  Albigensian. 
The  greater  part  of  the  South  was  won  to  heresy. 

Before  taking  severe  measures  Pope  Innocent  III  wished 
to  have  recourse  to  the  arms  furnished  by  the  arsenal  of  reason. 
The  Bishop  of  Osma,  accompanied  by  the  admirable  monk 
270 


PHILIP  AUGUSTUS 


who  was  one  day  to  become  Saint  Dominic,  went  into  the 
contaminated  lands.  They  frankly  recognized  that  the  dis¬ 
orders  among  the  clergy,  the  luxury,  the  dissipated  lives  of 
numerous  prelates,  abbots,  and  vicars  were  at  the  root  of  the 
evil.  They  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  would  indeed  be 
useful  to  bring  the  Church  back  to  her  original  purity  as  the 
Vaudois  desired,  but  without  injury  to  the  integrity  of 
the  Faith.  They  set  the  example,  going  barefooted  along  the 
roads  begging  the  necessities  of  life,  and  conversing  with  the 
heretics,  whom  they  strove  to  lead  back  to  the  right  path  by 
the  gentle  force  of  argument.  Unfortunately,  other  highly 
placed  Churchmen  took  a  different  tone.  They  demanded 
the  extermination  of  the  heretics  ;  mortified  limbs  which  must 
be  cut  off  from  the  body  by  steel  and  fire,  lest  the  whole  body 
.  .  .  but  we  know  the  frightful  sophism. 

Among  these  prelates,  Folquet  de  Marseilles  expressed  him¬ 
self  the  more  vehemently  because  he  thought  he  ought  to  make 
good  haste  along  the  road  to  Paradise,  having  previously  trodden 
quite  other  paths.  In  February  1206  he  was  promoted  to  the 
Episcopal  See  of  Toulouse. 

At  his  instigation  the  Papal  Legate,  Pierre  de  Castelnau, 
excommunicates  Raymond  VI,  Count  of  Toulouse  (1207). 
By  way  of  response,  one  of  the  Count’s  squires  assassinates 
Pierre  de  Castelnau  in  an  inn  (12th  January  1208). 

“  When  the  Pope  heard  that  his  legate  had  been  killed,”  we 
read  in  the  Chanson  de  la  Croisade  des  Albigeois ,  “  the  news 
wrung  his  heart.  He  buried  his  face  in  his  hands  and  called 
on  St.  James  of  Compostella  and  St.  Peter  of  Rome.  And 
his  prayer  finished,  he  extinguished  the  candle  which  was 
burning.  There  were  present  the  Abbot  of  Citeaux  and  Master 
Milo  who  speaks  Latin,  and  twelve  cardinals,  whose  seats 
formed  a  circle  in  which  was  taken  the  resolution  through  which 
so  many  men  have  perished  violently  and  so  many  ladies  have 
lost  clothes  and  covering.” 

In  June  1209  an  army  of  Crusaders  met  at  Lyons.  “  I 
will  not  trouble  to  recount  how  they  were  armed,”  says  the 
author  of  the  Chanson  de  la  Croisade ,  “  or  what  was  the  price 
of  the  crosses,  made  of  strips  of  material  woven  of  silk  and  gold, 
which  they  wore  on  their  breasts.” 


271 


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This  alludes  to  the  way  in  which  the  money  necessary  for 
the  expedition  had  been  got  together.  Rich  merchants, 
bankers,  usurers,  Cahorsins,  had  advanced  funds  as  though  it 
were  a  commercial  enterprise.  Afterwards  they  were  to  receive 
as  compensation  stuffs,  wine,  corn,  even  estates  and  castles 
taken  from  the  Albigenses.  They  considered  it  a  very  good 
investment. 

On  the  21st  the  Crusading  army  arrived  before  Beziers. 
The  Viscount  Raymond  Roger  protests  in  vain  his  constancy 
in  the  Faith.  The  town  is  taken  and  sacked,  given  to  the 
flames  and  bloodshed.  In  the  Church  of  the  Madeleine  alone, 
where  some  women,  old  people,  and  children  had  taken  refuge, 
seven  thousand  poor  wretches  were  slaughtered.  The  town 
was  destroyed.  After  this  the  war  takes  its  course,  mingled 
with  savage  executions.  The  defenders  of  the  fortresses  are 
hung  on  the  seigniorial  gibbet.  Knights  captured  in  combat 
are  strangled  and  hung  44  to  the  flowering  olives  ”  ;  or  again 
they  are  dragged,  gasping,  through  the  streets  tied  to  their 
horses’  tails.  The  burgesses  of  the  towns  are  burnt  alive,  in 
crowds,  in  the  middle  of  fields,  where  their  calcined  bones 
are  piled  in  smouldering  heaps.  Poor  old  women,  flung  to 
the  bottom  of  pits,  are  crushed  there  by  great  stones.  “  The 
grass  of  the  fields  was  red  as  the  rose,  for  no  prisoners  were 
taken  ”  ( Chanson  de  la  Croisade).  And  amidst  the  immense 
enthusiasm,  miracles  flourished  along  the  bloody  path  of  the 
Crusaders  like  lilies  in  a  pure  heart.  In  the  fiercest  fights, 
amidst  the  tumult  of  attack,  clerks  sang  the  Sancte  Spiritus 
and  the  V eni  Creator ,  under  the  banners  of  the  army  on  the 
march,  44  in  procession  and  in  voices  so  loud  that  the  sound 
could  be  heard  half  a  league  away  ”  ( Chanson  de  la  Croisade). 

A  squire  from  the  Northern  provinces,  Simon  de  Montfort 
l’Amaury,  had  lost  no  time  in  distinguishing  himself  by  the 
ardour  of  his  faith,  as  well  as  by  his  courage,  his  energy,  and  his 
military  talents.  The  faith  of  Simon  de  Montfort  filled  Saint 
Louis  with  admiration,  and  the  good  King  used  to  take  pleasure 
in  relating  the  following  anecdote  about  him.  44  Some  Albigenses 
came  up  to  the  Comte  de  Montfort  saying  they  had  come  to 
see  the  host  which,  they  had  been  told,  had  been  changed  into 
flesh  and  blood  in  the  hands  of  a  priest  at  the  altar  ;  but  he 
272 


PHILIP  AUGUSTUS 


said  to  them  :  4  Go  and  see  it,  you  who  do  not  believe  ;  I  am  not 
anxious  to  do  so,  since  I  firmly  believe  it.5  ” 

Robust  in  his  faith,  Simon  was  severe  in  every  way,  though 
at  the  same  time  an  adroit  politician  ready  to  follow  good 
counsels.  He  was  elected  by  the  Crusaders  Viscount  of  Béziers 
and  Carcassonne,  the  lordships  oî  which  Raymond  Roger  was 
deprived.  The  Crusade  had  found  its  leader.  Simon  de  Mont- 
fort  pursued  the  campaign  with  an  overpowering  swiftness. 
Places  fall  one  after  another  into  his  hands,  and  each  encounter 
with  the  Southern  troops,  badly  organized  and  led,  undecided 
whether  to  submit  or  fight,  is  marked  by  a  victory.  In  1212 
Raymond  VI  no  longer  commanded  anything  except  Toulouse 
and  Montauban.  The  conquest,  moreover,  was  still  characterized 
by  the  most  atrocious  cruelties.  The  official  historian  of  the 
Crusade,  the  monk  Pierre  de  Vaux-Cernay,  gives  us  its  note. 
“  With  great  joyfulness  our  pilgrims  burned  a  great  number  of 
heretics.” 

These  Frenchmen  of  the  North  seemed,  to  the  more  refined 
population  of  the  South,  men  of  repulsive  rudeness  and  brutality. 
Above  all,  they  inspired  repugnance  by  their  drunkenness. 
Thus  amidst  the  clashing  of  steel  and  under  a  tide  of  blood 
was  swamped  the  44  gay  science,”  the  magnificent  language  of 
the  troubadours,  the  courtly  poetry  which  flourished  in  the 
noble  Courts  of  Comminges  and  Languedoc. 

Peter  II,  King  of  Aragon,  resolved  to  march  to  the  aid  of 
his  neighbour,  the  Count  of  Toulouse,  to  whom  he  had  married 
one  of  his  sisters,  and  another  sister  to  his  son.  Relations  of 
every  kind  were  at  that  time  frequent  between  the  south  of 
France  and  the  north  of  Spain.  The  two  slopes  of  the  Pyrenees 
were  bound  by  ties  of  active  sympathy. 

At  the  moment  of  buckling  on  his  hauberk  Peter  II  wrote 
to  a  noble  lady  of  Toulouse  that  he  was  setting  out  to  the  war 
for  the  love  of  her,  a  stroke  of  gallant  chivalry  worthy  of  a 
brave  and  courteous  prince  and  a  friend  of  the  troubadours. 
The  letter  was  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  Simon  de  Montfort. 
He  took  a  harsher  view  of  it  :  44  How  could  I  respect  a  King 
who,  for  the  sake  of  a  woman,  marches  against  God  ?  ”  This 
anecdote  gives  us  a  picture  of  both  adversaries. 

The  King  of  Aragon,  accompanied  by  the  Counts  of 

s  278 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Toulouse  and  Foix,  arrived  before  the  walls  of  Muret  where 
Simon  de  Montfort  was  shut  up.  The  allied  princes  had  con¬ 
siderable  forces  at  their  disposal  :  2000  horsemen  and  40,000 
footmen,  the  latter  furnished  by  the  communal  militias,  and 
including  sergeants-at-arms,  youths,  and  servants. 

Simon  de  Montfort  had  with  him  only  a  thousand  knights 
and  two  or  three  thousand  footmen,  but  he  did  not  hesitate  to 
issue  from  the  town  and  offer  battle  to  an  army  ten  times 
bigger  than  his  own.  His  fanaticism  carried  him  away.  He 
knelt  before  the  Bishop  of  Uzès,  saying,  “  My  God,  I  give  you 
my  soul  and  my  body.”  In  the  first  rank  of  the  Crusaders 
marched  the  Bishop  of  Toulouse  in  all  the  splendour  of  the 
pontifical  vestments,  holding  above  his  head  a  piece  of  the  true 
cross.  The  battle  began  on  the  12th  September  (1213).  The 
Northerners  made  a  furious  attack. 

Simon  de  Montfort  had  grouped  his  knights  in  a  mass 
which  fell  solidly  on  the  enemy.  The  latter  were  divided  into 
two  bodies,  one  under  the  orders  of  the  King  of  Aragon,  the 
other  under  the  Count  of  Toulouse.  According  to  the  custom 
of  chivalry,  the  fighting  took  place  in  independent  groups,  by 
households,  each  feudal  lord  being  surrounded  by  his  vassals. 
After  having  crushed  one  of  the  two  bodies  of  knights  opposed 
to  him,  Simon  de  Montfort  overwhelmed  the  other  through  the 
swiftness  and  density  of  his  attack. 

Two  knights,  Alain  de  Roucy  and  Florent  de  Ville,  who 
had  sworn  to  kill  the  King  of  Aragon,  managed  to  get  up  to 
him  and  cut  his  throat.  To  the  Southerners  this  was  the  signal 
for  a  stampede.  The  Counts  of  Toulouse,  Foix,  and  Comminges 
were  the  first  to  flee.  A  Catalonian  knight  came  to  announce 
the  defeat  to  the  thousands  of  the  men  of  Toulouse  assembled 
in  the  fields  of  the  Garonne,  who  had  not  yet  taken  part  in 
the  action.  Terror-stricken,  they  sought  refuge  in  the  boats 
moored  in  the  middle  of  the  river  which  had  been  used  to 
bring  ammunition  and  provisions  from  Toulouse.  They 
jostled  each  other,  overcrowded  the  boats,  and  were  drowned 
by  the  hundred  in  the  flowing  stream.  A  frightful  carnage 
was  made  of  the  survivors.  The  number  of  victims  among 
the  men  of  Aragon  and  Toulouse  ran  into  thousands  :  twenty 
thousand  according  to  Pierre  de  Vaux-Cernay.  The  Crusaders 
274 


PHILIP  AUGUSTUS 


lost  hardly  a  hundred  men.  The  corpse  of  the  King  of  Aragon 
was  despoiled  by  plunderers  of  its  rich  armour  and  clothing.  His 
white  body,  covered  with  blood,  was  found  lying  quite  naked  on 
the  green  grass. 

It  was  a  decisive  victory.  Simon  de  Montfort  was  master 
of  Languedoc. 

These  wars  between  Christians  and  vassals  of  the  same  king 
did  not  fail  to  give  rise  to  protests.  Guillaume  le  Clerc  writes  : 

When  Frenchmen  go  against  men  of  Toulouse 
Whom  they  hold  as  heretics, 

And  the  Roman  legate  there 
Conducts  and  leads  them, 

It  is  not  well.  .  .  . 

The  Holy  Places  have  fallen  once  more  under  the  rule  of  the 
Crescent.  Is  this  the  moment  for  Christians  to  be  killing  one 
another  ? 

And  what  a  singular  role  is  that  of  the  Churchmen,  who 
march  with  soldiers  and  excite  them  to  carnage  ! 

But  the  clerk  should  go  to  his  scripture 
And  to  his  psalms,  to  sing, 

And  let  the  knight  go 

To  his  great  battles  in  the  field  : 

While  he  is  in  front  of  the  altar. 

It  must  be  confessed  that,  once  master  of  Languedoc,  Simon 
de  Montfort  proved  himself  a  clever  organizer.  At  Pamiers 
in  1212  four  ecclesiastics  and  four  French  barons,  together  with 
two  knights  and  two  burgesses  of  the  South,  were  chosen  to 
draw  up  statutes  destined  for  the  new  conquest.  These  were 
the  famous  Statutes  of  Pamiers,  in  which  Languedoc  found  a 
constitution  better  adapted  to  the  transformations  effected 
in  the  past  century.  A  check  was  put  on  the  excesses  of  the 
unruly  squires,  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  district  hailed  the 
changes  which  were  made,  almost  with  gratitude.  But  the 
troubadours  regretted  the  times  of  the  Courts  of  Love,  where 
their  noble  poetry  brought  forth,  in  quiet  nests  of  loveliness, 
shining  eggs  of  gold. 

“  This  is  what  I  saw  before  my  exile,”  writes  Aimeric  de 
Péguilhan.  44  Before  my  exile  (in  Italy)  if,  for  love,  a  ribbon 
was  bestowed  on  us,  immediately  joyous  meetings  and  in- 

275 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


vitations  arose.  It  seems  to  me  that  a  month  now  is  twice  as 
long  as  a  year  in  the  days  of  chivalry.  What  sorrow  to  see  the 
difference  between  the  society  of  to-day  and  that  of  yesterday.” 

Under  these  wars  of  religion  deeper  causes  are  to  be  found. 
A  society  different  in  its  manners  from  that  of  the  North  had 
been  formed  south  of  the  Loire.  The  Crusaders  behaved  like 
brutes,  destroying  everything.  “  They  made,”  we  read  in  the 
Chronicle  of  the  Churches  of  Anjou,  44  a  frightful  carnage  of 
heretics  and  Catholics,  between  whom  they  did  not  stop  to 
discriminate.”  It  would  be  impossible  to  condemn  their 
excesses  too  indignantly  ;  but  in  the  violence  of  the  conflicts 
they  bound  Northern  France  to  the  France  of  the  South  by  ties 
which  were  destined  never  more  to  be  broken.  With  their  rude 
and  bloody  hands  they  made  a  clear  space  for  the  influence  of 
the  Ile-de-France  which,  at  the  heels  of  the  monarchy,  was  to 
conquer  politically,  intellectually,  and  artistically  the  whole 
country. 

In  fact,  from  the  beginning  Philip  Augustus  treated  Simon  de 
Montfort  as  a  royal  officer.  He  regards  him  as  a  judge.  Simon 
de  Montfort  administers  justice  in  his  name.  The  Council  of 
Lateran,  meeting  in  November  1215,  had  left  Toulouse  to  Count 
Raymond  on  the  insistence  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff.  Simon, 
who  wanted  the  whole  domain,  came  to  lay  siege  to  the  town. 
The  defence  of  the  place  was  heroic  and  gay.  44  Everybody,” 
we  read  in  the  Chanson  de  la  Croisade ,  44  set  to  work  with  a  will  : 
the  common  people,  young  knights  and  maidens,  ladies,  married 
women,  boys,  girls,  and  little  children.  Singing  ballads  and 
gay  songs,  they  worked  at  fences,  ditches,  and  earthworks.  .  .  .” 
At  last,  the  aim  of  a  stone-thrower  manoeuvred  by  some  women 
of  Toulouse  struck  Simon  de  Montfort  on  the  brow  and  scattered 
his  brains  within  his  burnished  helmet.  44  There  was  in  the 
town  a  machine  for  casting  stones,  made  by  a  carpenter,”  says 
the  author  of  the  Chanson  ;  44  the  stone  was  thrown  from  the 
top  of  St.  Sernin  by  the  ladies  and  girls  who  were  working  the 
engine.  And  the  stone  went  straight  to  its  mark,  and  struck 
the  Count  of  Montfort  on  his  brass  helmet,  so  accurately  that 
it  smashed  his  eyes,  brain,  teeth,  forehead,  and  jaw.  See  the 
Count  stretched  on  the  ground  dead,  bloody,  and  black.”  Two 
knights  ran  and  covered  the  body  with  a  blue  scarf,  to  hide  the 
276 


PHILIP  AUGUSTUS 


fact  of  his  death.  But  the  news  spread,  sowing  terror.  The 
besiegers  burned  their  constructions,  their  wooden  fortresses, 
and  decamped  towards  Carcassonne.  “  Straight  to  Carcassonne 
they  carry  him  for  burial,  and  to  celebrate  his  obsequies  at  the 
monastery  of  St.  Nazaire.  And  we  read  in  his  epitaph  that 
the  Lord  of  Montfort  is  a  saint  and  martyr,  and  that  he  will 
rise  again  and  rejoice  in  the  beatitude  of  God.  If  by  killing 
men  and  spilling  blood,  by  damning  souls,  by  consenting  to 
murders,  by  giving  ear  to  perverse  counsels,  by  kindling  great 
fires,  by  destroying  barons  to  take  their  lands  by  violence,  by 
slaughtering  women  and  massacring  children,  one  can  in  this 
world  win  Jesus  Christ — the  Lord  of  Montfort  should  indeed 
be  crowned  and  resplendent  in  heaven,  And  may  the  Virgin’s 
Son,  Who  makes  right  shine  forth,  Who  gave  His  Flesh  and 
Blood,  watch  over  right  and  justice  and  show  forth  the  right 
between  the  two  sides.”  It  is  difficult  not  to  subscribe  to  these 
lines,  attributed  to  the  troubadour  Peire  Cardinal. 

Thus  Count  Raymond  VII  of  Toulouse  got  the  upper  hand 
again,  and  the  son  of  Simon  de  Montfort  wall  be  seen  leaving  his 
domains  to  the  King  of  France. 

Could  not  then  the  unity  of  a  great  country  be"  achieved 
without  such  cruel  crises  ? 

Hardly  was  the  Albigensian  War  over  when  the  spectacle 
of  the  clashing  of  arms  was  to  be  seen  at  the  other  extremity  of 
France. 

The  King  of  France  had  given  the  throne  of  Flanders  to 
Ferrand  of  Portugal,  making  him  marry  Jeanne,  the  eldest 

daughter  of  Count  Baldwin,  who  had  become 
Bouvines.  Emperor  of  Constantinople.  At  first  Ferrand 
showed  a  certain  amount  of  gratitude,  but  soon,  led  on,  it  is 
true,  by  his  subjects  who  were  bound  by  their  commercial 
interests  to  England,  he  had  consented  to  become  the  liege 
man  of  John  Lackland,  on  consideration  of  a  money  payment. 
We  have  mentioned  the  material  prosperity  of  the  great  Flemish 
towns  ;  their  cloth  merchants  and  weavers  had  need  of  English 
wool.  Even  before  the  marriage  of  Ferrand  of  Portugal  to  the 
daughter  of  Count  Baldwin  they  had  allied  themselves  with 
John  Lackland  against  Philip  Augustus. 

Renaud  de  Dammartin  was  not  as  great  a  prince  as  the 

277 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Count  of  Flanders,  but  he  was  bold  and  enterprising,  and  he 
had  had  his  domains  augmented  through  the  protection  of 
Philip  Augustus.  He  married  Countess  Ida  of  Boulogne,  and 
to  the  important  lordship  which  his  wife  brought  him  Philip 
Augustus  added  three  Norman  Counties  :  Aumale,  Mortain, 
and  Varennes.  Renaud  de  Dammartin  had  thus  become  an 
important  feudatory.  Discontented  at  not  receiving  from 
Philip  Augustus  the  support  which  he  had  asked  for  in  a  struggle 
against  Philippe  de  Dreux,  the  warlike  Bishop  of  Beauvais, 
Dammartin  entered,  in  the  presence  of  the  Count  of  Flanders, 
the  service  of  the  King  of  England.  This  latter  succeeded  also 
in  taking  into  his  pay  the  Count  of  Holland  ;  and  the  German 
Emperor,  Otto  VI  of  Brunswick,  was  drawn  into  the  Coalition. 
John  Lackland  thought  the  moment  had  come  for  him  to 
attempt  to  recover  the  French  provinces  of  which  Philip 
Augustus  had  deprived  him.  The  beginnings  of  hostilities  were 
marked  by  a  great  success  for  the  members  of  the  Coalition. 
Philip  Augustus  was  besieging  Ghent.  A  little  French  garrison 
was  established  at  Damme,  the  port  of  Bruges,  where  was 
stationed  the  fleet  of  four  hundred  ships  which  Philip  Augustus 
had  equipped  for  a  descent  on  England.  The  English  came 
up  and  burned  nearly  all  the  vessels  which  the  garrison  of 
Damme  found  it  impossible  to  defend.  The  German  Emperor 
began  a  campaign  while  Ferrand  plundered  Artois.  Renaud 
de  Dammartin  laid  siege  to  Calais.  The  Coalition  had  con¬ 
ceived  a  plan  on  a  grand  scale.  While  the  Flemish,  Germans, 
and  Dutch  were  to  invade  Northern  France  through  Artois, 
and  advance  on  Paris,  John  Lackland  was  to  land  in  Poitou 
and  with  all  his  forces,  augmented  by  the  contingents  which 
he  could  levy  in  these  districts,  as  well  as  in  Aquitaine  and 
Anjou,  was  to  march  on  Paris  and  attack  it  from  the  South. 
The  Capetian  power  would  be  crushed  in  a  gigantic  vice.  To 
the  lords  of  Aquitaine,  energetic,  restless,  and  warlike  nobles 
without  nobility,  needy  Gascon  younger  sons,  John  Lackland 
sent  money.  But  Philip  Augustus  also  exerted  himself  to 
keep  faithful  allies  in  these  lands,  notably  the  famous  Guillaume 
des  Roches,  a  rich  landed  proprietor  and  a  brave  captain,  and 
his  son-in-law,  Amauri  de  Craon. 

John  Lackland  landed  on  the  12th  February  at  La  Rochelle, 

278 


PHILIP  AUGUSTUS 


He  made  incursions  into  Saintonge,  Poitou,  Angoumois,  and 
Limousin.  Philip  Augustus  sends  his  son  against  the  invaders, 
threatening  him  from  the  South,  while  he  himself  is  to  march 
against  the  Imperial  troops,  the  Flemish  and  Dutch,  who 
threaten  the  North.  The  brilliant  victory  of  Prince  Louis  over 
John  Lackland  at  La  Roche  au  Moine  in  Anjou  (2nd  July  1214) 
is  of  happy  omen.  Leaving  tents  and  baggage,  stone-throwers 
and  trebuchets,  John  Lackland  flees  for  all  he  is  worth.  On 
the  15th  July  he  is  at  La  Rochelle.  Philip  Augustus  heard 
the  news  at  Peronne,  whence  he  was  watching  the  troops  of 
the  Coalition  grouped  on  the  frontier  of  Hainault. 

The  plateau  of  Bouvines  dominated,  at  a  height  of  about 
ten  yards,  the  marshy  plains  stretching  between  Lille  and 
Tournai,  one  of  the  few  spots  in  the  district  in  which  one  did 
not  slip  about  in  mud  and  which  was  fully  exposed.  Otto’s 
army  was  entrenched  at  Valenciennes,  80,000  men,  of  whom 
1500  were  knights.  Philip  Augustus,  following  up  his  plan 
of  cutting  the  Imperial  troops  off  from  their  communications 
with  Flanders  and  England,  left  Peronne  on  the  23rd  July. 
On  the  26th  he  was  at  Tournai.  Otto  and  his  troops  turned 
round  and  went  to  install  themselves  in  a  strong  position, 
defended  by  marshes  on  the  Roman  road  which  leads  from 
Bavai  to  Tournai.  The  enemy  armies  were  separated  by 
fifteen  kilometres.  The  Imperial  troops  were  already  counting 
on  victory.  The  King  of  France  was  to  be  killed  and  his  king¬ 
dom  divided  among  the  conquerors.  In  this  fine  allotment  of 
spoil,  Paris  was  to  fall  to  the  Count  of  Flanders. 

However,  on  Sunday,  the  27th  July,  in  the  morning,  Philip 
made  an  attempt  to  bend  back  on  Lille.  The  Coalition  troops 
attempted  to  follow  him  without  any  fixed  order  of  marching. 
Their  one  fear  was  that  the  King  of  France  should  escape 
them.  Philip  Augustus  continued  his  march  as  far  as  Bouvines, 
situated  on  the  highest  part  of  the  plateau,  where  he  arrived 
about  midday.  His  troops  had  begun  to  cross  over  to  the 
left  bank  of  the  Marcq  by  a  bridge  which  the  French  King  had 
had  made  wider — the  bridge  of  Bouvines,  which  was  at  that 
time  thrown  ninety-eight  metres  up  the  river  from  the  present 
bridge.  The  King  had  removed  his  armour  and  was  resting  in 
the  shade  of  an  ash  tree  watching  the  operation  of  the  crossing 

279 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


of  the  river,  which  was  just  finishing.  “  He  was  steeping  a 
slice  of  bread  in  a  cup  of  pure  gold  and  the  weather  was  very 
hot,”  writes  Philippe  Mousket,  when  there  ran  up  the  famous 
Hospitaller,  Brother  Guérin,  the  chief  adviser  of  Philip  Augustus, 
the  grey  Eminency  of  the  reign.  Brother  Guérin  had  just 
been  elected  Bishop  of  Senlis.  He  announced  the  enemy’s 
attack.  The  King  springs  to  the  saddle.  He  gives  the  order 
to  the  contingents  of  his  communes  to  cross  the  river  again. 
To  gain  time  for  the  operation  to  be  completed  the  French 
rearguard,  commanded  by  the  Viscount  of  Melun,  resisted  with 
obstinate  courage  the  attack  of  the  Imperial  troops.  Otto, 
who  expected  to  find  an  enemy  army  in  retreat  and  divided  by 
the  stream  which  one  part  would  have  crossed,  was  surprised 
at  running  up  against  a  complete  army  drawn  up  in  order  of 
battle. 

The  French  King  was  stationed  in  the  centre  of  his  troops. 
Beside  him,  Galon  de  Montigny  carried  the  royal  standard 
sown  with  golden  lilies  on  an  azure  field.  It  was  a  radiant 
July  day  and  the  Imperial  troops  would  have  the  sun  in  their 
eyes.  Opposite  Philip  Augustus  was  the  Emperor  Otto,  re¬ 
splendent  in  golden  armour  and  flanked  by  the  Imperial 
standard,  a  dragon  surmounted  by  a  golden  eagle.  William 
le  Breton  gives  us  a  description  of  it.  “A  stake  stood  up 
from  a  chariot  and  round  this  was  curled  a  dragon.  He  could 
be  seen  from  afar.  He  held  up  his  tail  and  swelled  out  his 
wings.  He  seemed  to  suck  in  the  wind,  showing  his  horrible 
teeth  in  his  enormous  jaws.  Above  him  soared  an  eagle. 
These  animals  were  of  gleaming  gold  and  shone  like  the  sun.” 
Speaking  of  the  German  eagle,  the  Chronicler  of  St.  Denis 
shows  him  with  “  face  turned  towards  the  French  with  gaping 
jaws  as  though  he  would  swallow  all.” 

Brother  Guérin  commanded  the  right  wing  of  the  royal 
army.  Over  his  coat  of  arms  of  grey  mail  was  thrown  the 
tunic  of  the  Hospitallers,  red  with  a  black  cross.  He  faced 
the  left  wing  of  the  Coalition  army  commanded  by  the  Count 
of  Flanders.  The  left  wing  of  the  French  was  under  the  orders 
of  the  famous  fighting  prelate,  Philippe  de  Dreux,  Bishop  of 
Beauvais.  It  would  have  to  measure  itself  against  the  right 
wing  of  the  Allies  under  Renaud  de  Dammar  tin, 

280 


PHILIP  AUGUSTUS 


The  enemy  hosts  confronted  each  other  along  two  parallel 
lines. 

Brother  Guérin  fulfilled  the  functions  of  General-in-Chief 
of  the  French  army.  Fie  had  arranged  the  troops,  no  longer 
leaving  the  different  households  grouped  round  their  respective 
barons,  but  mixing  them  together  according  to  strategical 
requirements. 

The  combatants  realized  the  gravity  of  the  moment.  The 
tumult  and  clatter  of  arms  which  mark  the  beginnings  of  battle 
were  not  heard  in  their  ranks  ;  an  impressive  silence  reigned. 
Philip  Augustus  addressed  his  men  : 

“  Our  hope  and  trust  is  in  God.  King  Otto  and  his  army 
have  been  excommunicated.  They  are  the  enemies  of  religion. 
The  money  which  supports  them  has  been  extorted  from  the 
tears  of  the  wretched.”  And  stretching  out  his  hands — like 
the  Kings  of  the  chansons  de  geste — Philip  Augustus  blesses 
his  subjects. 

The  trumpets  sounded,  the  clerics  chanted  the  psalms,  and 
the  battle  began. 

Contrary  to  the  statement  generally  made,  the  soldiers  of 
the  communes — the  militias  of  Beauvais,  Valois,  Senlis,  Ver- 
mandois,  and  Picardy — played  only  a  secondary  part.  The 
legend  of  the  communal  militias  of  1214  is  on  a  par  with  that 
of  the  volunteers  of  1792-93.  The  victory  of  Bouvines  was 
decided  by  the  impetuous  courage  of  the  French  knights. 
They  are  seen  at  several  points,  in  massive  squadrons,  travelling 
like  an  immense  projectile  from  one  part  to  another  of  the 
enemy  ranks.  In  the  midst  of  the  fray  Philip  Augustus,  who 
fought  as  a  knight,  became  entangled  among  the  German 
infantry.  A  ruffian  seized  him  under  the  throat  at  the  opening 
of  the  cuirass,  with  one  of  those  javelins  of  which  the  point  is 
furnished  with  a  double  hook.  He  pulled  it  with  his  two  hands 
like  a  woodcutter  does  a  rope  tied  to  the  fork  of  an  oak  tree. 
The  King  fell  from  his  horse  and  disappeared  under  a  heap  of 
German  ruffians  :  a  lump  of  sugar  under  a  swarm  of  ants. 
Guillaume  des  Barres,  “  the  flower  of  knighthood,”  and  Pierre 
Tristan  released  the  King  with  great  sword- strokes  and  he  got 
back  to  saddle.  A  handful  of  knights,  however,  reached  the 
Emperor,  and  Gerard  La  Truie  put  out  an  eye  of  his  horse 

281 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


under  its  brass  frontal.  Mad  with  pain,  the  animal  gallops 
off  with  Otto.  Des  Barre  pursues  him  and  comes  up  with  him 
at  the  moment  that  the  animal  falls  exhausted.  He  seizes 
the  Emperor  by  the  throat  and  with  so  tight  a  hold  that  he 
might  have  choked  him  had  not  some  German  knights  forced 
him  to  loose  his  hold.  But  Otto,  seized  with  terror,  ran  away 
shrieking.  44  We  shall  see  his  face  no  more,”  said  Philip 
Augustus.  The  Emperor  with  the  Golden  Eagle  ran  all  the 
way  to  Valenciennes. 

On  the  left  wing  of  the  French  the  action  still  remained 
indecisive  when  at  the  centre  and  on  the  right  wing  victory 
was  assured.  In  this  left  wing  the  Bishop  of  Beauvais,  with 
prodigious  strength,  struck  without  respite,  with  his  heavy 
iron  weapon  crushing  the  knights  under  their  iron  carapaces. 
As  he  was  invested  with  the  episcopal  dignity,  the  Pope  had 
forbidden  him  to  spill  blood  by  using  an  edged  weapon.  The 
folk  whom  he  bore  down  were  none  the  less  duly  killed.  Salis¬ 
bury,  the  English  leader,  underwent  the  experience.  Renaud  de 
Dammartin,  traitor  to  his  King,  fought  desperately.  He  was 
taken  towards  evening,  having  rolled  under  his  horse.  Count 
Ferrand  gave  himself  up  to  the  brothers  of  Mareuil.  The 
number  of  dead  was  not  so  large  as  might  have  been  expected. 
44  Each  of  the  knights,”  says  William  le  Breton,  44  covered  his 
limbs  with  several  plates  of  iron  ;  he  covered  his  breast  under 
tunics  of  leather,  stuffed  doublets,  and  various  plastrons.  The 
moderns  are  more  careful  about  protecting  themselves  than 
the  ancients  were.  As  dangers  become  more  threatening  pre¬ 
cautions  are  multiplied  and  new  methods  of  defence  are  in¬ 
vented  against  new  methods  of  attack.”  Nevertheless,  they 
had  not  yet  arrived  at  tanks  and  aircraft,  420’s  and  torpedoes. 
The  number  of  prisoners  too  was  considerable.  There  was  not 
enough  rope  to  bind  them.  44  The  people  to  be  bound  were 
more  numerous  than  their  conquerors,”  says  Le  Breton. 

The  enthusiasm  with  which  the  battle  of  Bouvines  filled  the 
whole  of  France  was,  perhaps,  more  remarkable  than  the  victory 
itself.  It  is  an  explosion  of  joy  in  which  vibrates  with  a 
sublime  emotion  the  ideal  of  one’s  country.  The  poets  of  the 
time,  celebrating  gentle  France  in  song,  expressed  the  senti¬ 
ments  of  all. 

28£ 


PHILIP  AUGUSTUS 


“  Who  could  describe  in  writing,”  says  William  le  Breton, 
“  the  hymns  of  victory,  the  innumerable  dances,  the  songs  of 
the  clerics,  the  chimes  of  the  bells  under  the  golden  cocks,  the 
adornment  of  the  sanctuaries,  the  white  hangings  of  the 
houses  draped  in  cendal  and  silk,  the  strewing  of  roads  and 
streets  in  which  brightly  coloured  flowers  and  green  branches 
were  spread.” 

It  was  harvest-time.  Reapers  and  binders,  sheavers  and 
spreaders,  abandoning  their  work,  crossed  the  fields  in  great 
haste,  rakes  and  scythes  over  their  shoulders,  and  went  in 
great  haste  to  range  themselves  along  the  route.  Wiping 
with  their  forearms  the  sweat  from  their  dusty  brows,  they 
gazed  upon  “  Ferrand  enferré  ”  (Ferrand  “  pierced  ”)  in  his 
chains. 

Peasants,  old  men,  women,  and  children  made  a  mockery 
of  his  name,  which  could  also  be  that  of  a  horse.  And  it 
happened  that  the  two  draught  horses  which  drew  him  a 
prisoner  in  his  litter  were  exactly  the  sort  the  colour  of  whose 
coats  led  to  the  giving  of  this  name. 

“  What  shall  we  say  of  the  welcome  given  to  the  conquerors 
by  the  Parisians  ?”  it  is  an  Englishman  speaking.  “  The 
houses  were  hung  with  brightly  coloured  cendal  (a  thick  silk), 
the  streets  shone  with  a  thousand  torches  and  lanterns  ;  they 
resounded  with  plaudits  and  song.  During  the  whole  day  and 
the  night  which  followed,  the  echoes  took  up  the  notes  of  the 
trumpets  and  the  hymns  of  joy.”  The  students  drank  and 
sang  for  a  week. 

The  vanquished  met  a  terrible  fate  :  Renaud  de  Dam- 
martin,  cast  into  the  depths  of  a  dungeon,  was  chained  to  a  tree 
trunk  which  two  men  could  not  have  lifted.  The  Count  of 
Flanders  was  imprisoned  in  the  tower  of  the  Louvre,  where 
he  was  to  remain  for  thirteen  years.  The  Emperor  Otto, 
dethroned  in  favour  of  his  rival  Frederick  II  of  Hohenstaufen, 
fled  to  Cologne  with  his  wife,  disguised  as  a  pilgrim.  He  died  in 
obscurity  at  Brunswick  (19th  May  1218). 

With  the  news  of  the  victory  of  Bouvines  the  few  Aquitainian 
barons  who  supported  John  Lackland  deserted  him  also  ;  but 
the  Pope  intervened. 

On  the  18th  September  1214  peace  was  concluded  between 

283 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


the  French  and  English  Crowns  at  Chinon.  John  Lackland 
paid  £60,000  to  his  rival,  and  gave  up  to  him  Anjou,  Brittany, 
and  the  greater  part  of  Poitou.  The  two  victories  won  by  the 
French  armies  at  La  Roche  au  Moine  and  Bouvines  had  another 
consequence.  They  emboldened  the  English  feudatories  who 
forced  from  John  Lackland  the  ratification  of  the  Great  Charter, 
by  which  limits  were  set  to  the  royal  power.  “  Why  do  they 
not  ask  for  my  crown  also  ?  ”  cried  John  Lackland. 

The  year  1214  marks  the  highest  point  of  the  government 
of  Philip  Augustus.  On  every  side  men  claim  the  King’s 
protection.  Towns  and  villages,  abbeys  and  corporations, 
wish  to  be  placed  directly  under  his  patronage  and  to  be 
withdrawn  from  the  claims  of  local  authorities. 

Philip  Augustus  was  a  statesman,  a  politician,  and  a  soldier. 
Historians  have  pointed  out  that  he  deserves  even  more  than 
Louis  VI  to  be  called  the  protector  of  the  communes. 

But  the  most  important  act  of  Philip  Augustus  in  the  history 
of  the  internal  administration  of  France  was  the  creation  of  the 
first  “  bailiffs  ”  (baillis).  The  administration  of  the  provosts, 
almost  exclusively  appertaining  to  the  demesne,  had  become 
inadequate.  It  was  at  the  moment  of  his  departure  for  the 
Crusade  that  Philip  Augustus  instituted  the  baillis ,  super¬ 
imposed  on  the  provosts  and  extending  their  functions  over  a 
larger  district.  These  first  baillis  had  ill-defined  functions,  at 
the  same  time  judges,  administrators,  and  collectors  of  taxes. 
They  were,  above  all,  judges,  itinerant  judges  commissioned 
to  verify  the  judgments  of  the  provosts.  Philip  Augustus 
established  baillis  at  Orleans,  Sens,  Senlis,  Bourges,  Gisors,  in 
Vermandois,  then  in  the  Northern  towns,  Amiens,  Aire,  Arras, 
and  St.  Omer,  as  well  as  in  Normandy,  in  the  district  of  Caux  and 
in  the  Cotentin.  But  in  the  beginning  at  least  the  authority 
of  each  of  these  baillis  was  not  limited  to  the  territory  whose 
principal  town  they  occupied.  The  Seneschals  of  the  South 
corresponded,  as  we  know,  to  the  baillis  of  the  North,  but  with 
a  very  different  character,  at  least  in  the  beginning.  They 
are  great  and  powerful  lords  like  Guillaume  des  Roches  or 
Aimeri  de  Thouars,  to  whom  the  King  has  recourse  in  their 
respective  provinces  to  entrust  to  them  a  superior  adminis¬ 
trative  authority  similar  to  that  which  the  Seneschal  of  the 
284 


PHILIP  AUGUSTUS 


Crown  has  from  his  functions  at  the  Court  of  France  :  whence, 
moreover,  their  name  is  derived. 

Philip  Augustus  had  a  very  active  financial  policy  which 
doubled,  and  more  than  doubled,  the  revenues  of  the  Crown, 
not  only  by  developing  with  more  care  the  demesnes  of  the 
King  and  in  extracting  from  the  feudal  dues  all  they  could  be 
made  to  yield,  but  in  creating  new  sources  of  revenue. 

While  Louis  VII  had  protected  the  Jews,  Philip  Augustus 
exploited  them.  He  threatens  to  expel  them  and  obliges  them 
to  ransom  themselves.  He  lays  on  them  a  fixed  tax,  which 
yields  £1200  in  1202  and  £7550  in  1217. 

He  substitutes  payment  in  kind  for  labour  dues  and  makes 
the  towns  pay  money  in  lieu  of  service  with  the  army.  His 
financial  adviser  was  a  Templar,  Brother  Aimard,  who  appears 
to  have  been,  together  with  Brother  Guérin  the  Hospitaller, 
the  guide  whom  he  most  regarded.  Louis  VII  had  already 
kept  in  pay  horse  troops,  which  had  formed  a  sort  of  con¬ 
tingent.  Philip  Augustus  gave  to  this  institution  a  fixed 
character  which  it  had  not  known  before. 

Moreover,  he  is  seen  habitually  in  military  expeditions 
surrounded  not  by  feudal  vassals  but  by  a  troop  of  horse  soldiers, 
the  King’s  knights,  followed  by  sergeants  and  bowmen  : 
mercenary  troops — in  whose  ranks  are  already  roughly  out¬ 
lined  the  silhouette  of  a  regular  army. 

After  Bouvines,  Philip  Augustus  never  knew  an  enemy  who 
dared  to  measure  himself  against  him.  He  remained  in  his 
castles  in  the  Ile-de-France,  whence  he  directed  the  govern¬ 
ment.  His  son  Louis  was  commissioned  to  pursue  in 
the  provinces,  and  very  soon  in  England,  his  ever-active 
policy. 

Profiting  by  the  disputes  of  John  Lackland  with  his  vassals, 
the  King  of  France  dreams  of  winning  for  his  son  Louis  the 
crown  of  the  English  King.  Had  not  Louis  married  Blanche 
of  Castile,  the  niece  of  King  John  ?  Innocent  III  had  just 
quashed  the  Great  Charter  at  the  request  of  the  English  King. 
The  barons  across  the  Channel  entered  into  relations  with  the 
King  of  France.  The  latter  put  forward  that  John  Lackland 
had  been  condemned  by  the  peers  for  the  murder  of  Arthur, 
which  was  not,  in  fact,  true.  Consequently  the  son  of  John 

285 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

Lackland  could  not  inherit  from  a  father  deprived  of  his 
possessions. 

But  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  protected  John,  who  had  declared 
his  intention  of  taking  the  Cross  for  the  deliverance  of  the 
Holy  Land.  He  was,  above  all,  unwilling  that  the  power 
of  the  King  of  France  should  increase  without  a  counter¬ 
balance. 

Philip  Augustus  pretended  to  disapprove  of  his  son  Louis, 
while  at  the  same  time  he  provided  him  with  soldiers  and 
subsidies. 

Innocent  III  excommunicated  Louis,  who  embarked  for 
Great  Britain.  Here  everything  succeeded  with  the  son  of 
Philip  Augustus.  And  the  French  prince  might  well  already 
have  believed  himself  master  of  the  Crown  of  the  Plantagenets 
when  John  Lackland  died  on  the  19th  October  1216. 

The  Papal  Legate  immediately  had  the  young  Henry  III, 
aged  nine  years,  crowned  at  Westminster.  The  aspect  of 
affairs  was  about  to  change.  If  the  English  barons  preferred 
Prince  Louis  to  King  John,  perfidious,  cunning,  sensual,  and 
greedy,  they  liked  better  the  government  of  a  nine-year-old 
child  than  the  authority  of  an  active  and  energetic  knight. 
The  arms  of  Louis  of  France  suffered  a  grave  check  beneath 
the  walls  of  Lincoln  Castle.  The  English  were  commanded 
by  William  the  Marshall  and  by  a  brigand,  Fauquet  de  Breauté. 
Then  the  French  fleet  was  destroyed  within  sight  of  Calais. 
It  was  commanded  by  a  famous  pirate,  Eustache  Le  Moine 
(24th  August  1217).  The  historian  of  William  the  Marshall 
has  given  us  the  description  of  the  naval  action.  The  vessels 
attacked  by  boarding  each  other.  The  English  conquerors 
plundered  the  French  vessels,  “  but  one  man,  armed  with  a 
hook,  intending  to  draw  towards  him  on  a  bridge  a  fine  scarlet 
coverlet,  found  that  it  was  only  a  patch  of  blood.”  On  the 
11th  September  following,  Louis  signed  a  treaty  by  which  he 
renounced  his  claim  to  the  English  Crown  for  an  indemnity 
of  10,000  marks. 

The  last  years  of  the  reign  were  occupied  with  important 
works.  Philip  Augustus  had  been  a  great  builder.  Paris 
owes  a  great  deal  to  him.  It  is  estimated  that  the  town 
counted  120,000  inhabitants  in  his  reign.  The  streets  were 
286 


PHILIP  AUGUSTUS 


muddy,  black,  and  beaten  tracks  in  which  splashed  liquid 
mud.  Philip  Augustus  had  them  paved. 

In  the  field  cemetery,  on  the  site  of  the  present  market, 
there  was  held  among  the  tombs  a  market  of  edibles,  in  which 
the  smell  of  herrings,  cabbages,  and  cheese  mingled  with  that 
of  the  corpses  which  pigs  came  to  root  up,  while  fine  ladies 
took  the  air  at  the  proper  hours  in  aggressive  elegance.  Philip 
Augustus,  deeming  that  the  cemetery  no  longer  presented  an 
aspect  suitable  “  to  a  place  where  a  great  number  of  saints  were 
buried  ”  (William  le  Breton),  had  it  surrounded  (1186)  by  a 
wall  of  square  stones  outside  which  the  market,  the  pigs,  and 
the  fine  ladies  could  establish  themselves.  He  built  the  great 
tower  of  the  Louvre  and  deposited  his  treasure  there.  Finally, 
it  was  he  who  surrounded  the  northern  part  of  the  town  from 
Seine  to  Seine  with  a  continuous  wall  (1190)  broken  at  the 
ends  of  the  streets  by  “  bastilles,”  i.e.  fortified  gates,  an  en¬ 
closure  of  which  fragments  still  remain. 

In  the  midst  of  an  activity  rude,  industrious,  sometimes 
unscrupulous,  but  always  useful,  death  came  to  surprise  the 
admirable  King.  He  was  fifty-seven  years  old.  He  was 
consumed  by  a  fever  which  dragged  on  for  a  year,  and  he  died 
at  Mantes  on  the  14th  July  1223. 

Louis  VIII  gave  his  confidence  to  his  father’s  officers  and 
pursued  his  work  in  the  same  spirit.  Brother  Guérin  took  the 

title  of  Chancellor.  The  new  King  was  a  little 
Louis  VIII.  thin  man,  nervous,  decided,  with  an  aquiline 

nose  and  bright  eyes.  From  the  first  day  he  adopted  a  very 
resolute  attitude  towards  the  English,  who  claimed  the  con¬ 
quests  made  from  John  Lackland.  He  marched  with  a  con¬ 
siderable  army  into  Aquitaine,  where  some  barrels  of  Parisian 
pounds  helped  to  secure  victory.  Louis  VIII  conquered 
Poitou,  Limousin,  and  Périgord,  but  Bordeaux  remained 
to  the  English.  After  this  the  King  turned  against  Languedoc 
and  Provence.  There  was  still  the  question  of  the  Albigenses. 
At  the  head  of  considerable  forces,  Louis  laid  siege  to  Avignon. 
The  town  resisted  with  admirable  energy.  It  was  necessary 
to  dig  an  immense  ditch,  a  regular  moat,  and  to  take  famine 
as  an  auxiliary.  After  Avignon  the  chief  towns  of  the  South, 
Nîmes,  Narbonne,  Carcassonne,  Beaucaire,  Castres,  and  Mont- 

287 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

pelier,  opened  their  gates  to  the  King,  and  the  castles  followed 
their  example. 

It  remained  to  make  a  study  of  the  organization  given  to 
the  country  by  Simon  de  Montfort.  The  statutes  of  Pamiers 
were  rendered  more  exact  and  complete.  The  country  re¬ 
mained  divided  into  seneschals’  jurisdictions,  and  subdivided 
into  provostships,  but  the  franchises  of  several  towns  were 
reduced.  Amauri,  the  son  of  Simon  de  Montfort,  through 
lack  of  money  had  yielded  his  rights  over  the  conquered 
districts  to  the  French  King.  Louis  VIII  decided  that  all  the 
goods,  the  castles,  and  lands  confiscated  on  account  of  heresy 
should  fall  to  the  Crown.  Unhappily,  he  added  to  these 
decrees  a  decision  which  condemned  heretics  to  the  stake. 

Louis  VIII  was  returning  towards  the  Seine  when  he  suc¬ 
cumbed  at  Montpensier,  on  the  8th  November  1226,  to  the 
illness  supervening  on  dysentery  contracted  at  the  siege  of 
Avignon. 

Sources. — Leop.  Delisle,  Catalogue  des  actes  de  Philippe  Auguste, 
1886  ;  works  of  Rigord  and  of  William  le  Breton,  ed.  H.  F.  Delaborde, 
1883-85,  2  vols.  ;  Gisliberli  Chron.  Hanoniense ,  ed.  W.  Arndt,  SS.  rer. 
germ,  in  usum  Scholarum ,  1869  ;  Chronique  de  Hainaut  par  Gilbert ,  trans¬ 
lated  (into  French)  by  Godefroy-Menilglaise,  Tournai,  1874,  2  vols.  ; 
Histoire  de  Guillaume  de  Maréchal ,  ed.  P.  Meyer,  1891-1901,  3  vols.  ; 
Geoff,  de  Villehardouin,  Conquête  de  Constantinople ,  ed.  Nat.  de  Wailly, 
3rd  ed.,  1882  ;  Chanson  de  la  Croisade  contre  les  Albigeois ,  ed.  P.  Meyer, 
1875,  2  vols.  ;  P.  de  Yaux-Cernay,  ap.  Histoire  de  la  France  (D.  Bouquet), 
xix.  1-113. 

Historical  Works. — A.  Carteliieri,  Philippe  Auguste ,  1899-1910, 
3  vols.  ;  by  the  same  author,  Abt  Suger  von  S.  Denis ,  1898  ;  Ach.  Luchaire, 
“  Louis  VII,”  “  Philippe  Auguste,”  “  Louis  VIII,”  in  the  Histoire  de  France , 
ed.  Lavisse,  iii.  1901  ;  by  the  same  author,  La  Société  française  au  temps  de 
Philippe  Auguste ,  1909  ;  H.  Geraud,  “  Ingeburge  de  Danemark,”  Bibl. 
Ec.  des  Chartes ,  1844,  pp.  1-27,  93-118  ;  Borelli  de  Serres,  La  Réunion  des 
provinces  septentrionales  à  la  Couronne  par  Philippe  Auguste ,  1899  ;  H. 
Malo,  Renaud  de  Dammartin ,  1898  ;  Ch.  Bémont,  “  La  Condamnation  de 
Jean  sans  Terre,”  Revue  Historique ,  xxxii.  (1886)  33-72,  290,  311  ;  H. 
Delpech,  La  Tactique  au  XIIIe  Siècle ,  xxxvi.  95-135  ;  Jos.  Auglade,  La 
Bataille  de  Muret ,  1913  ;  J.  Longnon,  “  Bouvines,”  Revue  Critique  des 
idées  et  des  livres,  25th  June  1914,  p.  641  seq.  ;  Ch.  Petit-Dutaillis,  La  Vie 
et  le  règne  de  Louis  VIII,  1894. 


288 


CHAPTER  XIV 


A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ERMINE  :  SAINT  LOUIS 
BLANCHE  OF  CASTILE 

CHILD  of  twelve  ascended  the  throne  on  the  8th 
November  1226. 


Louis  IX  was  born  at  Poissy  on  the  25th  April 
1214.  His  mother,  the  widow  of  Louis  VIII,  held  the  regency 
during  his  minority. 

White  by  her  title,  as  the  widow  of  a  deceased  King  was 
called  “  the  white  Queen,”  white  in  heart  and 

Castile16  countenance,  writes  William  le  Breton,  the 

Queen  with  the  fair  name  says  Thibaud  of  Cham¬ 
pagne,  was  the  daughter  of  Alfonzo  VIII,  King  of  Castile. 
She  had  been  brought  to  France  at  the  age  of  twelve,  and 
since  then  had  not  left  the  country  of  her  adoption,  but  had 
continued  to  live  there  surrounded  by  familiar  friends  from 
her  native  land.  She  was  to  keep  always  her  Spanish  accent, 
which  did  not  fail  to  call  forth  the  raillery  of  the  writers  of 
the  time.  She  had  a  haughty  character,  ardent,  active, 
imperious.  She  was  thin,  dry,  and  sharp.  She  had 
exercised  great  sway  over  her  husband,  an  authority  which 
she  was  to  maintain  over  her  son.  Profoundly  imbued  with 
the  beliefs  of  her  time,  she  had  rigidly  brought  her  child  up 
in  them. 

Blanche  retained  the  ministers  of  Louis  VIII — that  is  to 
say,  of  Philip  Augustus — with  Brother  Guérin  in  the  first 
rank.  Unfortunately  this  great  man  died  in  1227.  Next 
to  him  was  Barthélemy  Roye,  who  had  been  Chamberlain 
of  France  for  twenty  years.  Age  had  already  undermined 
his  intellect.  The  great  feudal  nobles,  so  forcibly  kept  in  hand 
by  Philip  Augustus,  thought  the  moment  had  arrived  to  regain 


T 


289 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


their  lost  influence.  Pierre  Mauclerc,  the  Count  of  Brittany, 
Hugh  of  Lusignan,  Count  of  La  Marche,  who  had  married  the 
widow  of  John  Lackland,  and  Thibaud  le  Chansonnier  (the 
Singer),  Count  of  Champagne,  formed  a  coalition  with  the 
Count  of  Bar  and  some  others.  “  After  the  King  was  crowned,” 
says  Joinville,  “  there  were  some  barons  who  demanded  of 
the  Queen  that  she  should  give  them  much  land  ;  and  because 
she  would  do  no  such  thing,  they  called  together  all  the  barons 
at  Corbeil.  And  the  sainted  King  (Louis  IX)  related  to  me 
that  neither  he  nor  his  mother,  who  were  at  Montlhéry,  dared 
to  return  to  Paris  until  the  Parisians  came  with  arms  to  conduct 
them.  And  he  told  me  that  the  road  from  Montlhéry  was 
full  of  people,  armed  and  unarmed,  as  far  as  Paris,  and 
that  all  cried  on  Our  Lord  to  give  to  him  (the  young  King) 
a  good  and  long  life,  and  to  defend  and  keep  him  from  his 
enemies.” 

The  allied  lords  did  not  find  themselves  in  sufficient  force 
to  resist  the  power  of  the  people  concentrated  round  the  royal 
ideal.  The  Count  of  Bar  was  the  first  to  make  honourable 
amends.  As  to  the  poet  Thibaud,  he  fell  in  love  with  Blanche 
of  Castile. 

In  the  month  of  January  (1227)  Ferrand,  the  Count  of 
Flanders,  was  set  at  liberty,  with  the  necessary  guarantees. 
At  length,  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris  (April  1229),  the  able  regent 
put  an  end  to  the  bloody  conflicts  of  which  the  Albigensian 
War  had  sown  the  seeds.  Raymond  VII,  the  son  and  successor 
of  Raymond  VI,  Count  of  Toulouse,  abjured  heresy.  Blanche, 
his  only  daughter,  was  affianced  to  Alfonse  de  Poitiers,  the 
brother  of  Saint  Louis,  who  thus  extended  the  Capetian 
suzerainty  to  Beaucaire,  Nîmes,  Carcassonne,  and  Béziers. 
It  was  a  pacific  conquest  which  was  completed  at  Sens,  on 
the  27th  May  1234,  by  the  marriage  of  Saint  Louis  himself 
with  Marguerite,  the  daughter  of  Raimon  Berenger  IV, 
the  Count  of  Provence.  Moreover,  Thibaud  de  Champagne 
yielded  to  the  King,  for  40,000  pounds,  the  suzerainty  of  the 
counties  of  Blois,  Chartres,  Sancerre,  and  the  Viscounty  of 
Châteaudun. 

Nevertheless,  the  regent  must  suffer  the  reproach  of  listen¬ 
ing  too  readily  to  priests  and  Spaniards  ;  of  letting  the  govern - 
290 


A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ERMINE 


ment  fall  into  the  hands  of  clerics  ;  and  of  putting  mere  nobodies 
at  the  head  of  the  State.  She  was  mocked  for  the  devotion 
with  which  she  had  so  suddenly  inspired  Count  Thibaud,  that 
fat  man,  pot-bellied  and  slow,  a  droll  figure  for  a  lover.  Lastly, 
there  was  the  reproach  which  always  arises  so  easily  against 
queens  of  foreign  origin  of  sending  the  nation’s  money  across 
the  frontiers.  The  verses  of  Hue  de  la  Ferté  have  given  lively 
expression  to  these  grievances.  The  poet  addresses  the  King  : 

Sire,  why  do  you  not  summon 
Your  barons  to  make  peace  ; 

And  bid  come  forth  the  peers, 

Who  are  wont  to  govern  France, 

And  with  their  followers 
They  will  give  you  aid  ; 

And  make  the  clerks  go 
Sing  in  their  churches? 

As  for  Thibaud  de  Champagne,  is  he  the  man  to  wear 
helmet  and  hauberk  ?  The  barber’s  towel  and  basin  would 
suit  him  better. 

The  passion  of  King  Thibaud  for  Blanche  of  Castile  has  its 
place,  not  only  in  our  political  history,  but  also  in  the  history 
of  our  literature.  She  inspired  him  with  songs  of  which  he  com¬ 
posed  both  words  and  music,  and  which  are  among  the  most 
beautiful  of  all  time.  “  He  would  often  dwell  on  the  remem¬ 
brance  of  the  sweet  look  of  the  Queen  and  of  her  beautiful  face, 
declare  the  monks  of  St.  Denis,  and  then  a  sweet  and  amorous 
sentiment  would  fill  his  heart.  But  when  he  remembered  that 
she  was  so  great  a  lady,  and  of  such  good  and  pure  life  that  he 
might  not  take  pleasure  in  her,  his  sweet  and  amorous  feeling 
changed  to  great  sadness.  And  because  deep  thought  begets 
melancholy  he  was  advised  by  certain  wise  men  to  study  the 
fine  notes  of  the  viol  and  sweet  and  delectable  songs.  And 
so  were  composed  by  him  and  Gasse  Bruslé,  most  beautiful 
poems,  the  most  delectable  and  melodious  which  have  ever 
been  heard  in  song  and  on  the  viol.  And  they  were  in¬ 
scribed  in  the  great  halls  of  Provence  and  Troyes.  They  are 
called  the  songs  of  the  King  of  Navarre.  For  the  kingdom  of 
Navarre  fell  to  him  when  his  brother  died  without  heir  of  his 
body.” 


291 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Queen  Blanche  replied  to  the  love  poems  which  Thibaud 
addressed  to  her,  like  an  honest  woman  and  in  a  piquant 
manner  which  kept  the  gallant  at  arm’s  length. 

Thibaud  de  Champagne  was  extremely  fat.  What  will 
become,  he  asks  the  Queen,  of  the  god  of  love  when  we  are  no 
more,  for  if  you  were  to  die  I  should  not  survive  you  for  a 
moment  ?  The  following  reply  is  put  into  the  mouth  of 
Blanche  : 

By  Jove,  Thibaud,  as  far  as  I  can  see, 

Love  is  not  nigh  to  death  ; 

I  know  not  if  you  are  mocking  me, 

For  you  are  not  yet  very  thin.  .  .  . 

Thibaud  claims  that  if  he  has  put  on  flesh  it  is  because  he 
feeds  on  hope  ;  to  which  conies  the  reply  : 

Silence,  Thibaud  !  You  should  not  begin 
A  discourse  wanting  in  all  sincerity, 

You  say  it  to  conciliate  me — 

You  who  have  so  mocked  me.  .  .  . 

King  Thibaud  dreams  none  the  less  of  embracing  her  whom 
he  loves  : 


I  know  full  well  that  my  lady  is  loved  by  a  hundred 
And  more  still  ...  it  provokes  me  to  anger, 

But  I  love  her  more  than  any  living  man  : 

Would  to  God  I  might  clasp  her  lovely  body.  .  .  . 

To  which  Raoul  de  Soissons  replies  :  “I  should  like  to  see 
you  embracing  your  beloved  !  The  width  of  your  stomach  is 
greater  than  the  length  of  your  arms  !...  Embrace  a  woman  ! 
.  .  .  Be  content  to  look  at  her  !  .  .  .” 


Sir,  you  have  done  well 
To  gaze  on  your  beloved; 

Your  fat  and  puffy  belly 
Would  prevent  you  reaching  her. 


Louis  IX  was  not  declared  of  age  until  he  was  twenty-one. 
Joinville  gives  a  sketch  of  him  at  a  banquet  given  by  the  young 

King  at  Saumur.  He  was  dressed  in  a  coat  of 
violet  satin  with  an  upper  coat  and  mantle  of 
vermilion  satin  edged  with  ermine.  This  was 
the  garb  of  royalty.  Joinville  adds:  “He  had  a  cotton  hat 
292 


King  and 
Saint. 


A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ERMINE 


on  his  head  ill  becoming  so  young  a  man.”  His  clothing  was 
very  simple  in  comparison  with  that  of  the  lords  seated  round 
the  King,  notably  that  of  Thibaud  de  Champagne,  who  also 
wore  a  coat  and  mantle  of  satin,  but  with  bands  and  clasp  of 
gold  and  a  golden  crown  on  his  head.  Thus  Louis  IX  was  to 
exhibit  himself  all  his  life  in  the  humblest  garb,  even  before  the 
time  when,  after  his  return  from  the  Egyptian  Crusade,  he 
adopted  costumes  of  an  excessive  simplicity.  He  wore  robes 
of  cendal — a  coarse  silk — of  a  dark  blue  shade  44  embellished 
with  his  arms,”  i.e.  with  the  fleurs-de-lis  ;  and  sometimes  he 
wore  camelin,  a  common  material,  of  a  mixture  of  wool  and 
cotton  of  a  brown  shade.  It  was  remarked  that  not  only  the 
nobles  of  the  Court  but  clerics  like  Robert  de  Sorbon  were 
dressed  in  richer  stuff  than  the  King.  He  liked  to  declare 
that  one  ought  to  dress  in  such  a  way  that  elderly  people  could 
not  say  44  one  dressed  too  much,”  and  young  people  that  44  one 
did  not  dress  enough.” 

Marguerite  of  Provence,  who  loved  fine  clothes,  complained 
to  the  King  that  he  dressed  too  simply. 

44  Madame,  to  please  you,  then  I  will  dress  in  splendid 
clothes  ;  but  you,  on  your  side,  must  suit  yourself  to  my  taste 
and  give  up  your  beautiful  garments.” 

The  King  heard  no  more  on  this  subject  from  his  wife. 

Saint  Louis  was  very  tall.  He  stood  a  head  higher  than 
those  around  him.  44  Never  was  there  so  fine  a  man  under 
arms,”  says  Joinville,  44  for  he  stood  above  all  his  people  from 
the  shoulders  upwards.”  This  high  stature  is  found  again  in 
his  grandson,  Philip  the  Fair,  and  his  great-grandson,  Philip 
the  Long.  He  was  slight,  thin,  lightly  built,  pleasing  and 
gentle  in  his  movements.  Such  he  was  when  in  1248  he  was 
seen  by  Fra  Salimbene,  when  Saint  Louis  was  preparing  to 
depart  on  his  first  Crusade.  He  was  clothed  as  a  pilgrim  with 
cape  and  staff.  44  Truly,”  adds  the  Italian  monk,  44  he  seemed 
more  like  a  monk  vowed  to  religion  than  a  soldier  trained  to 
the  profession  of  arms.” 

Saint  Louis  was  fair,  but  he  became  bald  very  early.  Con¬ 
temporaries  are  agreed  as  to  the  gentleness  of  his  look.  They 
speak  of  his  44  dove’s  eyes.”  The  smooth  beauty  of  his  face 
impressed  the  Arabs  who  saw  him  in  Egypt. 


293 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Two  features  dominate  the  character,  life,  and  government 
of  Saint  Louis  :  his  piety  and  his  love  of  justice. 

Ancient  France  has  been  defined  as  an  aristocratic  republic 
governed  by  judicial  institutions  under  the  direction  of  a 
supreme  magistrate,  the  King.  After  the  glorious  evolution 
of  the  twelfth  century  these  institutions  reached  their  maturity. 
Here  is  definitely  constituted  that  paternal  France  whose 
germs  we  have  seen  unfolding  in  the  tenth  century.  Under 
the  King  who  assures  justice  to  his  vassals,  and  the  vassals 
who  assure  justice  to  the  lesser  vassals,  the  nation  lives  with 
a  life  intense  and  independent.  In  occupying  himself  with 
justice  alone,  the  King  secures  peace  and  concord  in  his  king¬ 
dom,  and  through  concord  and  peace  he  gives  it  glory  and 
prosperity.  44  Fie  shunned  discords,”  writes  Guillaume  de 
Saint-Pathus,  44  he  avoided  scandals  and  hated  disagreements. 
For  which  reason  the  waves  of  assault  were  held  back  on  all 
sides  and  disturbances  driven  awav.” 

44  Dear  son,”  Saint  Louis  will  say  to  him  who  was  afterwards 
to  become  Philip  the  Bold — 44  dear  son,  if  it  should  be  that  you 
come  to  reign,  see  that  you  have  the  mark  of  a  King — that  is  to 
say,  that  you  are  so  just  that  you  will  never  refuse  justice  on 
any  consideration.  If  it  happen  that  a  dispute  between  rich 
and  poor  comes  before  you,  support  the  poor  rather  than  the 
rich,  and  when  you  have  heard  the  truth,  do  justice  to  them. 
And  if  it  happen  that  you  have  a  dispute  with  another,  support 
the  claim  of  the  other  before  your  council,  and  do  not  show 
your  great  interest  in  the  dispute  until  the  truth  be  shown,  lest 
those  of  your  council  should  fear  to  speak  against  you  ;  for 
this  you  should  not  desire.” 

44  The  King,”  says  Joinville,  44  governed  his  land  well  and 
loyally,  as  you  will  see  from  what  follows.”  And  here  is  this 
government  : 

44  He  had  his  business  arranged  in  such  a  way  that  my 
lord  of  Neele  (Simon  de  Nesles)  and  the  good  Count  of  Soissons 
(Jean  II  le  Bègue),  and  we  others,  who  were  around  him,  when 
we  had  heard  Mass  went  to  hear  the  pleadings  at  the  gate,  which 
are  now  called  the  Requests.  And  when  he  came  back  from 
the  church  he  would  send  for  us,  and  seating  himself  at  the  foot 
of  his  bed  he  would  make  us  sit  round  him  and  asked  us  if  there 
294 


A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ERMINE 


were  any  one  to  settle  with  who  could  not  be  satisfied  without 
him.  And  we  mentioned  them,  and  he  sent  for  them  and 
asked  :  4  Why  do  you  not  take  what  our  people  offer  you  ?  ’ 
And  they  said  :  4  Lord,  they  offer  us  but  a  little.’  And  he 
said  to  them  :  4  You  ought  to  accept  what  they  are  willing  to 
do.’  And  thus  the  holy  man  exerted  all  his  powers  to  bring 
them  to  a  right  and  reasonable  course.” 

Such  are  the  famous  scenes  which  are  to  produce  dh  e 
Requests  of  the  44  Hôtel  ”  when  the  King  can  no  longer  eal 
in  person  with  matters  brought  to  the  palace,  absorbed  as  he 
will  be  in  the  more  and  more  numerous  occupations  to  which 
the  aggrandizement  of  the  royal  demesne  and  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  his  authority  will  give  rise. 

After  which  Joinville  presents  us  with  this  familiar  picture, 
of  the  Wood  of  Vincennes  : 

44  Many  times  it  happened  in  the  summer  that  he  (the 
King)  went  to  sit  in  the  Wood  of  Vincennes,  after  hearing  Mass, 
and  leaned  against  an  oak  and  made  us  sit  round  him,  and  all 
those  who  had  affairs  to  attend  to  came  to  speak  to  him  without 
disturbance  of  an  usher  or  any  one  else.  And  then  he  asked  : 

4  Is  there  no  one  who  has  a  plea  ?  ’  And  those  who  had  rose, 
and  then  he  said  :  4  Keep  quiet,  all  of  you,  and  judgment  will 
be  dealt  to  you  in  turn.’  And  then  he  summoned  my  lord 
Perron  de  Fontenines  (the  famous  lawyer)  and  my  lord  Geoffroy 
de  Villette  ( bailli  of  Tours  in  1261-62),  and  said  to  one  of  them  : 

4  Judge  this  case  for  me.’  And  when  he  saw  anything  to  correct 
in  the  words  of  those  who  spoke  for  him  or  those  speaking  for 
any  one  else,  he  himself  made  the  amendment  with  his  own 
lips.” 

In  Paris  the  good  King  acted  in  the  same  way.  For  this 
purpose  he  went  to  the  Garden  of  Paris,  i.e.  to  the  garden  of 
the  King’s  residence  (the  Palais  de  Justice)  at  the  summit  of 
the  City,  a  spot  now  occupied  by  the  Place  Dauphine. 

44  I  saw  him  several  times  in  the  summer,”  says  Joinville, 

44  going  to  judge  cases  for  his  people  in  the  Paris  Garden, 
dressed  in  a  coat  of  coarse  stuff,  with  an  outer  coat  of  tyretaine 
(a  stuff  half  wool,  half  cotton)  without  sleeves,  a  mantle  of 
thick  black  silk  fastened  round  his  neck,  his  hair  well  combed 
out  and  without  a  liât,  but  with  a  coronet  of  white  peacock’s 

295 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


feathers  on  his  head.  And  he  had  a  carpet  spread  for  us  to 
sit  round  him  ;  and  all  the  people  who  had  matters  to  bring 
before  him  stood  round  him,  and  he  gave  judgment  in  the  way 
I  have  described  before  in  the  Wood  of  Vincennes.” 

Such  was  essentially  the  government  of  Saint  Louis,  an 
incessant  labour  which  included  great  and  small,  from  the 
common  people,  whose  affairs  he  quickly  settled  (expédiait) 
at  the  palace  gate  or  under  green  boughs  in  wood  or  garden, 
to  the  feudal  lords  whose  quarrels  he  appeased,  and  the  good 
towns  where  he  strove  to  put  an  end  to  disputes  between 
Patricians  and  artisans.  “  Blessed,”  said  he,  “  blessed  are  the 
peacemakers.” 

And  as  he  could  not  be  everywhere  at  the  same  time,  in 
the  innumerable  nooks  and  corners  of  his  kingdom,  he  in¬ 
stituted  his  famous  inquirers  ( enquêteurs ),  who  journeyed 
through  the  provinces  charged  with  the  inquiry  into  the  manner 
in  which  baillis ,  seneschals,  and  provosts  administered  justice. 
Saint  Louis  generally  chose  religious  for  these  missions, 
Dominican  or  Franciscan  Friars. 

The  reputation  as  an  administrator  of  justice  which  the 
pious  monarch  thus  acquired  spread  beyond  the  frontiers. 
The  princes  of  the  Marches  of  the  Empire  came  to  submit 
their  disputes  to  him.  Wishing  to  end  their  quarrels,  they 
addressed  themselves,  not  to  the  German  Emperor,  but  to  the 
King  of  St.  Denis.  Still  more  foreigners  came  as  simple 
individuals  to  the  royal  Court  in  spite  of  distance,  to  Reims, 
Paris,  Melun,  or  Orleans,  to  beg  the  ivory  hand,  whose  pacific 
action  was  felt  throughout  Europe,  to  put  an  end  to  their 
differences.  And  now  we  come  to  the  famous  “  dit  d’ Amiens .” 
The  English  barons  were  struggling  against  King  Henry  III, 
who  had  not  taken  care  to  respect  the  Provisions  of  Oxford, 
an  act  by  which  the  English  Nobility  had  surrounded  the 
exercise  of  the  royal  power  with  new  barriers.  In  December 
1263  the  two  sides,  weary  of  their  quarrels,  referred  them  to 
the  decision  of  the  King  of  France.  He  pronounced  his  judg¬ 
ment  at  Amiens  on  the  24th  January  1264.  It  was  completely 
in  favour  of  Henry  III. 

Some  years  before,  the  good  King  had  given  a  strikin 
proof  of  his  desire  for  justice  by  the  way  he  had  tried  to  put 
296 


P  CfQ 


A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ERMINE 


definite  end  to  the  long  conflict  between  the  French  and  English 
Crowns,  a  fact  which  had  doubtless  won  for  him  the  con¬ 
fidence  of  King  and  barons  across  the  Channel. 

Profiting  by  the  dissensions  which  had  arisen  between  the 
French  Court  on  one  side  and  some  lords  of  the  South  and 
West  on  the  other,  Henry  III  had  broken  with  Louis  IX  (16th 
June  1242),  judging  the  occasion  to  be  favourable  for  winning 
back  the  provinces  of  which  Philip  Augustus  had  deprived 
John  Lackland.  The  English  landed  at  La  Rochelle,  they 
proposed  to  join  forces  with  the  Count  of  Toulouse  and  the 
Count  of  La  Marche  ;  but  the  victory  won  by  Louis  IX  under 
the  walls  of  Saintes — known  as  the  battle  of  Taillebourg — 
broke  the  Coalition  (22nd  July  1242).  Treaties  were  concluded 
at  Bordeaux.  Although  he  had  conquered  his  rival,  Saint 
Louis  restored  to  the  English  Crown  part  of  the  conquests  of 
Philip  Augustus  —  Limousin,  Quercy,  and  Périgord.  His 
brother,  Alfonse,  Count  of  Poitiers,  had  no  children.  If  he 
should  die  without  heirs,  the  English  monarch  was  to  receive 
also  Agenais  and  the  greater  part  of  Saintonge,  that  part 
situated  south  of  the  Charente.  In  return,  Henry  III  definitely 
renounced  for  himself  and  his  successors  Normandy,  Anjou, 
Touraine,  Maine,  and  Poitou.  Moreover,  he  formally  acknow¬ 
ledged  himself  as  a  vassal  of  the  French  King  for  the  domains 
which  the  English  Crown  still  preserved  in  our  country. 

Joinville  tells  us  that  the  King’s  Council  made  the  liveliest 
opposition  to  these  astounding  concessions.  “  Sire,”  said  the 
barons  to  Saint  Louis,  “  we  are  greatly  surprised  that  you 
are  willing  to  give  to  the  English  King  so  large  a  part  of  the 
land,  which  you  and  your  predecessor  (Philip  Augustus)  won 
from  him  through  his  misdeeds.  It  seems  to  us  that  if  you 
think  you  have  no  right  to  them  you  are  not  making  satisfactory 
restitution  to  the  English  King  unless  you  give  him  all  the 
conquests  made  by  yourself  and  your  predecessor  ;  and  if 
you  think  you  have  a  right  to  them  it  seems  to  us  that  you  are 
throwing  away  what  you  give  back  to  him.” 

To  this  the  holy  King  replied  : 

“  Lord,  I  am  certain  that  the  predecessors  of  the  King  of 
England  rightly  lost  the  conquest  which  I  hold.  The  land 
I  am  giving  him,  I  do  not  give  because  I  am  bound  to  him  or 

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THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


his  heirs,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  great  love  existing  between 
my  children  and  his,  who  are  first  cousins.  And  it  seems  to 
me  that  what  I  give  I  employ  well,  for  he  was  not  my  man 
and  now  has  done  me  homage.” 

It  is  none  the  less  certain  that  Saint  Louis  made  a  very 
grave  mistake  in  this  case,  and  one  for  which  the  country 
might  justly  have  called  him  severely  to  account.  He  broke 
in  an  alarming  way  from  the  policy  of  his  grandfather,  which 
he  should  always  have  had  before  his  eyes.  At  one  stroke 
he  destroyed  so  many  efforts  made  by  the  Frenchmen  of  France 
for  the  unity  of  their  country,  so  many  troubles  and  sufferings 
borne  by  them  ;  and  prepared  enduring  calamities. 

But  at  least  Joinville  has  revealed  the  motives  which 
actuated  the  holy  King,  and  primarily  that  need  of  unity, 
peace,  and  concord  so  deeply  rooted  in  him.  By  a  natural 
impulse  of  the  man,  he  attributed  to  others  a  character  like 
his  own,  with  the  same  kindness  and  an  equal  sense  of  justice. 
He  believed  that  his  generosity  would  secure  a  durable  peace 
between  the  two  countries.  He  judged  things  out  of  his 
charity.  His  grandfather,  as  a  clear-sighted  politician,  had, 
on  the  contrary,  discerned  the  germs  of  future  discords  in 
the  very  settlement  which  was  now  concluded. 

Saint  Louis  could  not  appreciate  that  those  feudal  institu¬ 
tions  which  he  saw  so  well  established  round  him  were  soon 
to  crumble.  He  had  consolidated,  he  said,  the  ties  of  fidelity 
and  homage  by  which  the  English  Kings  were  subject  to  the 
Kings  of  France,  and  does  not  a  vassal  owe  aid  and  devotion 
to  his  suzerain  ?  But  in  a  few  years  these  feudal  ties  were  to 
count  no  longer.  To  understand  fully  the  actions  of  Saint 
Louis  as  King  it  is  necessary  to  take  full  account  of  his  religious 
faith.  This  sentiment  had  in  him  assumed  a  strength  which 
we  can  only  imagine  with  difficulty.  For  Louis  IX,  Catholic 
dogma  was  the  truth.  The  lightest  doubt  could  not  cross  his 
mind.  He  was  convinced  that,  quite  close  by,  God  watched 
over  men,  assisted  the  faithful,  helped  him  himself  to  rule. 
Thus  God,  religion,  and  its  holy  cult  formed  the  principal  end 
towards  which  his  efforts  were  directed.  His  mother,  Blanche 
of  Castile,  had  brought  him  up  to  practices  which  Churchmen 
themselves  considered  excessive.  Is  it  not  Guillaume  de 
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Saint-Pathus,  the  Queen’s  confessor,  who  shows  us  the  King 
remaining  so  long  on  his  knees  with  his  elbows  supported  on  a 
bench  and  lost  in  prayer  that  the  members  of  his  suite,  among 
whom  were  many  clerics,  yawned  with  weariness  ?  At  other 
times,  in  his  room,  he  would  remain  for  hours  prostrate  with 
his  face  against  the  ground,  absorbed  in  ardent  prayer,  so  long 
that  on  rising  he  was  dazed  and  rubbed  his  eyes,  asking  his 
stewards  :  44  Where  am  I  ?  ” 

By  abstinences,  fasts  and  privations,  the  hair  shirt,  and  the 
discipline,  he  contrived  to  ruin  his  health,  to  the  great  detriment 
of  the  matters  over  which  he  had  charge.  Under  the  influence 
of  an  extreme  piety  he  published  against  blasphemers  those 
terrible  edicts  by  which  their  tongues  were  to  be  pierced  with 
a  red-hot  iron.  Some  historians  have  professed  to  see  in  these 
edicts  only  a  menace,  a  formula  of  malediction,  a  sort  of 
anathema  ;  but  these  edicts  were  put  into  force  in  a  horrible 
way,  and  more  than  once  ;  to  such  a  degree  that  even  Church¬ 
men  came  to  regard  them  as  excessive.  Finally,  we  must 
regretfully  confess  that  Saint  Louis  authorized  the  establish¬ 
ment  in  the  South  of  France  of  the  tribunals  of  the  Inquisition. 

We  have  said  that  Louis  IX  was  guided  in  his  government 
by  the  advice  of  his  mother,  4 4  the  white  Queen.”  His  chamber- 
lain,  Pierre  de  Laon,  a  man  of  great  intelligence  and  profound 
virtue,  had  equally  a  great  influence  on  his  decisions  ;  and  then 
there  were  the  Churchmen. 

Saint-Pathus  reports  that,  on  a  certain  day,  at  the  breaking 
up  of  the  Parliament,  a  good  woman  named  Sarrette  waited 
for  the  King  in  his  palace  at  the  foot  of  the  grand  staircase, 
and  when  he  passed  near  her,  44  Fi  !  Fi  !  ”  she  cried  out  to 
him.  44  Are  you  King  of  France  ?  It  were  better  that  another 
should  be  King  ;  for  you  are  King  only  under  Friars  Minor 
and  Preaching  Friars  and  priests  and  clerks.  It  is  a  great 
pity  that  you  should  be  King,  and  it  is  a  great  wonder  that 
you  are  not  driven  out  of  the  kingdom  !  ” 

The  sergeants  of  the  Guard  would  have  thrown  the  good 
woman  out  at  the  door,  but  the  King  prevented  them,  and 
going  up  to  her  said,  with  his  sweet  smile  : 

44  You  certainly  speak  the  truth  :  I  am  not  worthy  to  be 
King.  And  if  it  had  pleased  Our  Lord  it  would  have  been 

299 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


better  that  another  than  I  should  have  been  King,  and  one 
who  would  have  understood  better  how  to  rule  the  kingdom.” 

And  he  gave  orders  that  money  should  be  given  to  the 
good  woman. 

The  candid  poet  Rûtebeuf  for  his  part  declared  that  he 
hated  the  44  hypocrites,”  44  pharisees,”  and  all  the  religious 
pretenders  habited  in  black  and  grey  who  replaced  in  the 
Councils  of  the  King  the  44  Naymes  de  Bavaria,”  the  wise 
counsellors  trained  to  war  and  affairs,  the  glorious  assistants 
of  Charlemagne. 

Certainly  Saint  Louis  was  hardly  a  44  hypocrite.”  His 
piety  was  gay  and  attractive.  If  it  is  true  that  he  forbade 
the  knights  to  sing  in  his  palace  44  frivolous  songs  ” — 44  sing 
hymns  rather  ” — we  have  seen  his  liking  for  minstrels,  more 
frivolous  in  this  than  his  grandfather,  Philip  Augustus,  who 
had  banished  them  from  Court.  After  a  meal  he  would  put 
off  the  pious  readings  proposed  by  the  monks,  choosing  instead 
some  lively  subject  of  conversation  :  44  There  is  no  book  so 
good  after  eating  as  a  few  jokes.” 

He  asked  Joinville  in  the  presence  of  Robert  of  Sorbon  : 
44  Seneschal,  which  is  the  better,  an  honest  man  (prud'homme) 
or  a  béguin  ?  ” 

Louis  XIV  would  say  :  44  An  honest  man  or  a  devotee  ” 
(“Honnête  homme  ou  dévot”).  Robert  of  Sorbon  pronounced 
in  favour  of  the  devout,  while  the  Seneschal  of  Champagne 
exalted  the  honest  man.  And  Saint  Louis  agreed  with  the 
latter. 

44  Master  Robert,  I  would  much  rather  have  the  name  of  an 
honest  man  ;  let  me  be  this,  and  you  may  keep  the  rest  ;  for 
prud'homme  is  so  great  and  good  a  thing,  that  the  very  name 
is  a  mouthful.” 

Since  we  are  speaking  of  Saint  Louis  at  table,  let  us  give  the 
menu  of  a  dinner  which  the  good  King  gave  in  the  refectory 
of  a  convent  of  monks  at  Sens  in  1248  to  some  noble  guests  : 
his  three  brothers,  to  the  Cardinal  Legate,  and  the  Archbishop 
of  Rouen.  Fra  Salimbene  was  present  at  it.  44  At  dinner,” 
he  writes,  44  we  had  first  cherries  and  then  very  white  bread. 
We  were  served  at  the  same  time  with  wine  in  great  abundance, 
as  became  the  magnificence  of  royaltv.  And  after  the  manner 
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A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ERMINE 


of  the  French  some  were  anxious  to  invite  and  persuade  those 
who  were  unwilling  to  drink.  Afterwards  they  gave  us  new 
beans  cooked  in  milk,  fish  and  lobsters,  eel  pies,  rice  with  milk 
flavoured  with  almond  and  sprinkled  with  cinnamon,  roast  eel 
with  fine  sauce,  turtles  and  curds,  and  finally  a  quantity  of 
fruit.” 

For  the  rest,  Saint  Louis’  piety  did  not  prevent  him  stand¬ 
ing  firm  against  the  demands  of  the  clergy.  On  occasion  the 
Sovereign  Pontiff  found  in  him  an  adversary.  It  happened 
that  the  King  was  asked  to  attend  an  assembly  of  prelates  held 
in  Paris.  Hardly  had  he  entered  than  the  Bishop  of  Auxerre 
harangued  him  in  the  name  of  his  colleagues  : 

4  4  Sire,  the  lords  here  present,  archbishops  and  bishops,  have 
bidden  me  say  to  you  that  Christianity,  which  ought  to  be 
protected  by  you,  is  perishing  in  your  hands.” 

Saint  Louis,  alarmed,  crossed  himself.  Excommunications 
were  giving  rise  to  the  greatest  abuses.  There  was  no  part 
of  France  in  which  there  were  not  a  great  number  of  interdicts, 
and  most  often  for  some  motive  of  temporal  interest.  Now 
the  prelates  wished  that  the  King  should  force  the  excom¬ 
municated  by  the  confiscation  of  their  possessions  to  give 
satisfaction  to  those  who  had  pronounced  sentence  on  them. 
Saint  Louis  replied  that  he  would  willingly  do  so,  but  only  when 
it  had  been  proved  to  him  in  each  individual  case  that  the 
interdict  had  been  justly  pronounced.  In  other  words,  he 
was  asking  that  the  cases  should  be  submitted  to  him.  But 
the  prelates  protested  against  this  claim,  and  as  Saint  Louis 
quoted  as  an  example  the  case  of  the  Count  of  Brittany  who 
had  been  unjustly  excommunicated,  and  that  by  the  judgment 
of  the  Court  of  Rome  itself,  as  shown  by  the  fact  that  it  had 
afterwards  absolved  him,  the  French  prelates  did  not  insist 
and  took  care  not  to  refer  again  to  their  request. 

Saint  Louis,  governed  by  his  sentiments  of  piety  and  charity, 
multiplied  foundations  of  monasteries,  churches,  infirmaries, 
hospitals,  almshouses,  the  most  famous  of  which  has  survived, 
that  of  the  Quinze-V ingts  for  the  blind.  He  acquired  in  1239 
from  the  Latin  Emperor  of  Constantinople  the  Crown  of  Thorns, 
and,  in  1249,  a  piece  of  the  true  Cross.  It  was  as  a  shrine  for 
the  Crown  that  he  had  the  Sainte  Chapelle  begun  in  1242  on 

301 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


the  plans  of  Pierre  de  Montreuil,  a  pure  gem  of  Gothic  archi¬ 
tecture.  The  sublime  edifice  was  completed  in  1248.  The 
building  had  cost  £40,000,  which  would  represent  eight  million 
in  our  time. 

To  his  piety  he  united  a  humility,  which  he  imposed  on 
himself,  for  it  was  not  natural  to  him.  He  washed  the  feet 
of  the  poor  and  even  of  lepers.  He  made  them  eat  at  his  table. 
In  the  refectories  of  monasteries  he  loved  to  serve  the  simple 
monks.  On  a  certain  day  in  the  Abbey  of  Royaumont  there 
were  many  religious  at  table  and  few  servers  to  carry  the  dishes. 
The  King  went  to  the  kitchen  window,  where  he  took  the 
vessels  full  of  food.  And  because  the  dishes  were  too  hot  he 
wrapped  his  hands  round  several  times  in  his  cloak  because 
of  the  heat  of  the  food  and  the  vessels,  and  several  times  the 
food  was  spilt  on  his  cloak.  The  abbot  remarked  that  he  was 
spoiling  his  cloak,  and  the  King  replied  :  44  It  does  not  matter  ; 
I  have  others.” 

But  in  a  second  monastery,  in  which  he  expressed  the  wish 

to  serve  the  monks  in  the  refectorv,  the  abbot  advised  him  to 

«/  / 

refrain  :  44  It  is  not  for  a  King  to  do  ;  it  would  be  talked  about 
for  good  or  evil,  to  which  it  is  better  not  to  give  an  opening.” 

Marguerite  de  Provence  made  him  a  similar  and  equally 
sensible  reply,  on  the  day  when  he  suggested  that  they  should 
both  enter  religion,  he  as  a  monk  and  she  as  a  nun.  His  wife 
rejoined  that  they  had  better  things  to  do  even  in  the  interests 
of  religion  than  to  go  into  monasteries  to  mumble  prayers. 

For  the  rest,  the  canonization  of  the  holy  King  and  the  cult 
which  has  been  vowed  to  him  are  amply  justified  by  his  ex¬ 
quisite  goodness.  In  his  44  Instructions  ”  to  his  daughter, 
the  Queen  of  Navarre,  he  says  :  44  My  dear  daughter,  keep  a 
kindly  heart  towards  those  whom  you  hear  of  being  unhappy 
in  mind  or  body,  and  help  them  willingly  with  consolation  or 
alms  according  to  your  power.”  Advice  which  all  his  life  he 
put  into  practice,  and  with  a  charming  graciousness,  a  dis¬ 
arming  courtesy,  gaily,  even  humorously. 

The  legislative  work  of  Louis  IX  has  been  greatly  exag¬ 
gerated.  The  title  of  a  compilation  of  laws  known  as  the 
t4  Institutions  of  Saint  Louis  ”  has  caused  the  illusion.  It  is 
only  a  collection  of  local  customs  of  Anjou  and  Orleans,  to 
302 


A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ERMINE 


which  were  added  two  ordinances,  one  relating  to  the  provost- 
ship  of  Paris,  the  other  to  the  prohibition  of  judicial  duels. 
They  were  questions  of  procedure  ;  the  second,  it  is  true,  very 
important  and  representing  substantial  progress  in  the  admin¬ 
istration  of  justice.  The  part  of  the  “  Instructions  ”  which 
Saint  Louis  drew  up  for  his  son,  Philip  the  Bold,  and  which 
treated  of  internal  wars,  was  animated  by  the  same  spirit. 
We  have  seen  that  the  private  wars,  recurring  incessantly, 
chiefly  consisted  for  the  feudal  lords  in  ravaging  each  others’ 
territories.  It  was  a  terrible  scourge  to  the  inhabitants  of  a 
country  without  fortresses.  “  If  it  happen  that  it  is  necessary 
to  make  war,”  says  Saint  Louis  to  his  son,  “  give  careful  orders 
that  the  poor  people,  who  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  matter, 
be  protected  from  injury,  through  the  burning  of  their  goods, 
or  in  any  other  way.  For  it  is  more  becoming  for  you  to  put 
constraint  on  the  wrong-doer  in  taking  his  goods  or  his  towns 
or  castles  by  siege,  than  to  ruin  the  possessions  of  poor  folk.” 

Saint  Louis  suffered  from  a  chronic  malady  about  which 
Saint-Pathus  gives  us  the  following  details  :  “  Suddenly  the 
King  would  become  deaf,  losing  his  appetite  and  power  of 
sleep.  He  moaned  with  pain.  Each  of  these  crises  lasted 
three  or  four  days,  during  which  the  invalid  never  left  his  bed. 
When  he  was  on  the  point  of  getting  better,  his  right  leg  would 
swell  and  become  as  red  as  blood  ;  then  slowly  he  returned  to 
his  normal  condition  ;  the  King  was  now  well  again.” 

Was  this  the  illness  from  which  he  was  suffering  when,  in 
1244,  he  resolved  to  take  the  cross  ?  Joinville  describes  the 
scene.  Louis  IX  was  in  such  a  bad  state  ( mèschief  )  that  one 
of  his  nurses  “  wanted  to  pull  the  sheet  over  his  face,  and  said 
that  he  was  dead  ”  ;  but  another,  “  who  was  at  the  other  side 
of  the  bed,”  contradicted  this,  and  a  dispute  began  in  the  course 
of  which  the  King  gave  again  signs  of  life.  “  And  as  soon  as 
he  could  speak  he  asked  that  the  cross  should  be  given  to  him, 
which  was  done.”  The  Queen-Mother  was  overcome  with 
joy  when  she  learned  that  her  son  had  recovered  consciousness, 
but  only  to  give  place  to  a  deep  despair  when  she  was  told  that 
he  had  vowed  himself  to  the  Crusade.  In  vain  Blanche  of 
Castile  united  her  efforts  with  those  of  Queen  Margaret  and  of 
the  King’s  Confessor,  as  well  as  of  the  Bishops  of  Paris  and 

3Q3 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Meaux,  to  persuade  him  at  least  to  put  off  the  execution  of  his 
plan  until  he  was  quite  recovered.  Saint  Louis  belonged  to 
the  class  of  gently  obstinate  people.  “  Lord  Bishop,”  he  said 
to  the  Bishop  of  Paris,  “  I  beg  of  you  to  put  on  my  shoulder 
the  Cross  of  the  pilgrimage  beyond  the  seas.” 

The  situation  of  the  Christians  in  Palestine  had  become 
critical  after  the  battle  of  Gaza  (9th  October  1244),  in  which 

the  French,  united  with  Malik-Mansur,  the 
The  Egyptian  §OU(jan  Qf  Emessa,  had  been  defeated.  Gautier 
rusa  e.  ^e  Brienne,  Count  of  Jaffa,  had  been  made 
prisoner  as  well  as  the  Grand  Masters  of  the  Temple  and  the 
Hospital.  Speaking  of  this  alliance  of  Gautier  de  Brienne  with 
Malik-Mansur,  the  Arab  historian  Makrizi  observes  that  this 
was  the  first  time  that  the  banners  of  Christ  had  been  seen 
waving  in  the  same  ranks  as  the  Mohammedan  standards. 

The  Crusade  was  preached  by  Innocent  IV  at  the  Council 
of  Lyons  (1245).  But  at  the  same  time  he  proclaimed  the 
Crusade  against  the  Emperor  Frederick  II,  whom  he  had  just 
excommunicated  ;  with  the  result  that  Frederick  hastened  to 
warn  the  Sultan  Nedjin-Eddin  by  a  messenger  disguised  as  a 
merchant.  The  Crusaders  made  their  preparations  under  the 
direction  of  Saint  Louis,  while  the  Mohammedans  organized 
their  resistance. 

The  French  King  appealed  to  his  vassals,  barons,  and 
burgesses.  Salimbene  saw  him  traversing  the  bishopric  of 
Auxerre  in  the  company  of  a  Franciscan  friar  who  was  preach¬ 
ing  the  Crusade  and  giving  the  cross  to  those  who  pledged 
themselves  to  it.  The  people  sympathized  with  the  King. 

Behold  the  time  !  God  seeks  you  out, 

With  outstretched  arms  blood-stained  !... 

cries  Rutebeuf  in  his  magnificent  style. 

The  barons  showed  less  enthusiasm.  They  should  all 
have  been  like  the  lord  of  Joinville.  He  had  summoned  his 
vassals  for  Easter  Eve  (18th  April  1248).  By  a  happy  co¬ 
incidence  a  son  was  born  to  him  the  same  day,  to  whom  they 
gave  the  name  of  John.  The  first  days  of  the  week  were  full 
of  feasting,  drinking,  and  the  singing  of  songs  and  carols. 
But  on  the  Friday,  Joinville  assembled  his  men,  telling  them 
304 


A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ERMINE 


he  was  going  overseas,  and  that  he  wanted,  before  setting  out, 
to  make  reparation  for  any  wrongs  he  might  have  done  to 
one  or  other  of  them.  He  left  this  to  their  judgment. 

They  embarked  at  Aigues-Mortes  on  the  28th  August  1248. 
The  King  took  his  wife  and  his  three  brothers.  The  fleet  was 
to  put  in  at  the  isle  of  Cyprus  where  large  supplies  had  been 
prepared.  From  Cyprus  the  King  proposed  to  set  out  to  attack 
Egypt.  It  was  a  well-conceived  plan.  Cairo  was  the  key  of 
the  Holy  Land.  In  the  King’s  absence  the  French  regency 
was  entrusted  to  Blanche  of  Castile. 

Joinville  describes  the  imposing  aspect  of  the  supplies 
prepared  in  the  isle  of  Cyprus  :  “  The  King’s  stores  were  such 
that  his  people  had  made  in  the  fields  on  the  seashore  great 
piles  of  barrels  of  wine  bought  two  years  before.  They  had 
piled  them  up  on  one  another  so  that  seen  from  the  front 
they  looked  like  storehouses.  Wheat  and  barley  had  been 
heaped  up  in  the  fields,  and  they  looked  like  mountains  ;  for 
the  rain  which  had  fallen  during  a  long  period  on  the  grain 
had  caused  it  to  sprout  on  the  top  so  that  it  looked  like  green 
grass.  Now  it  happened  thus  that  when  they  wanted  to 
carry  it  into  Egypt  they  cut  off  the  dirt  on  the  green  surface 
and  found  the  wheat  and  barley  as  fresh  as  though  newly 
threshed.”  The  majority  of  the  barons  vowed  to  the  Crusade 
had  not  arrived  at  Aigues-Mortes,  so  that  the  King  had  to 
await  them  in  the  isle  of  Cyprus  until  the  month  of  May  in 
the  following  year,  whilst  the  Arabs,  having  been  warned, 
were  multiplying  their  means  of  defence.  Finally,  on  Friday 
the  21st  May  1249,  the  fleet  weighed  anchor. 

It  was  a  magnificent  sight  :  eighteen  vessels  whose  white 
sails  covered  the  sea  with  a  multitude  of  “  cloths  ”  ( touailles ), 
thousands  and  thousands  of  sheets  dazzlingly  white  in  the  rays 
of  the  sun  against  the  great  blue  sea.  Arab  fishermen  who 
had  put  off  from  the  African  coast  in  their  boats  shaped  like 
slices  of  melon,  mistook  the  Christian  fleet  at  a  distance  for 
an  innumerable  flight  of  gulls  poised  on  the  crest  of  the  waves. 

The  French  arrived  in  sight  of  Damietta,  at  the  mouth  of 
one  of  the  branches  of  the  Nile,  on  the  27th  May  1249.  Under 
the  orders  of  the  Emir  Fakhr-Eddin,  the  Arabs  in  order  of 
battle  occupied  the  upper  parts  of  the  beach.  The  Moham- 

u  305 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


medan  army  appeared  brilliantly  equipped.  44  The  noise,” 
writes  Joinville,  44  which  they  made  with  their  timbals  and 
their  Saracen  horns  was  horrible  to  hear.” 

The  French  threw  themselves  into  boats  and  hastened 
towards  the  shore.  When  Saint  Louis  saw  that  the  oriflamme 
had  reached  the  shore,  seized  with  impatience  he  leaped  into 
the  sea.  With  the  water  up  to  his  armpits  he  marched  with 
a  golden  helmet  on  his  head,  his  shield  at  his  neck,  his  sword 
in  hand.  On  the  shore  he  towered  above  his  men  with  his 
great  height.  A  strong  squadron  of  Turkish  knights  flung 
themselves  on  the  French.  “  When  we  saw  them  coming,” 
says  Joinville,  44  we  fixed  the  points  of  our  shields  in  the  sand, 
and  the  wood  of  our  lances  with  the  points  towards  them. 
When  they  saw  them  thus  ready  to  pierce  their  bellies,  they 
turned  right  round  and  fled.” 

In  a  short  engagement  two  lieutenants  of  Fakhr-Eddin, 
Emirs  renowned  for  their  courage,  were  killed.  The  Arabs 
were  thrown  into  confusion.  Fakhr-Eddin  made  his  arnïy 
cross  the  bridge  of  boats  leading  to  the  eastern  bank  of  the 
Nile.  The  French  found  themselves  masters  of  the  western 
bank.  The  Emir  led  his  army  southwards  up  to  Achmoun- 
Tanah.  The  Mohammedan  inhabitants  of  Damietta,  seized 
with  terror,  fled  after  him,  abandoning  their  fortifications. 
The  French  entered  the  town  in  the  morning  of  the  6th  June 
1249.  They  found  in  it  a  considerable  quantity  of  weapons, 
machines  of  war,  and  munitions.  But  the  Arabs  had  set  fire 
to  the  bazaars  where  provisions  were  accumulated. 

44  At  the  news  of  the  capture  of  Damietta,”  writes  an  Arab 
historian,  44  there  was  general  consternation  in  Cairo.  They 
reflected  gloomily  how  much  this  success  would  increase  their 
(the  French)  strength  and  courage.  They  had  seen  the 
Mohammedan  army  flee  before  them.  They  found  themselves 
masters  of  a  considerable  quantity  of  arms  and  ammunition.” 
The  Sultan  of  Cairo,  Nedjin-Eddin,  had  fallen  ill  and  was 
growing  worse.  Would  it  be  possible  for  him  to  take  the 
needful  measures  ?  44  No  one  doubted,”  concluded  the 

Arab,  44  that  the  kingdom  would  become  the  spoil  of  the 
Christians.” 

Saint  Louis’  first  care  was  to  send  a  message  to  the  Sultan 

806 


A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ERMINE 


inviting  him  to  make  peace  and  adore  the  true  Cross.  Nedjin- 
Eddin  replied  : 

“  In  the  name  of  the  all-powerful  and  merciful  God,  salvation 
to  our  prophet  and  his  friends  !  I  have  received  your  letter  : 
it  is  full  of  threats  and  you  glory  in  the  great  number  of  your 
soldiers.  Are  you  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  we  know  how  to 
wield  arms  and  that  we  have  inherited  the  courage  of  our 
ancestors  ?  No  one  has  ever  had  the  audacity  to  attack  us 
without  our  proving  our  superiority.  Let  me  remind  you  of 
our  triumphs.  We  drove  the  Christians  from  their  countries  ; 
the  strongest  towns  fell  into  our  power.  And  remember 
the  words  of  the  Koran  :  4  Those  who  fight  unjustly  shall 

perish.’  ” 

Ill  as  he  was,  the  Sultan  took  the  most  energetic  measures. 
He  had  fifty  of  his  officers,  guilty  of  having  abandoned  Damietta, 
strangled.  He  had  himself  carried  on  board  a  warship,  in  which 
he  sailed  down  the  Nile  to  meet  the  Crusaders,  as  far  as 
Mansourah.  He  had  all  available  vessels  rigged  out  and 
equipped  with  soldiers  and  munitions.  He  had  the  fortifica¬ 
tions  of  the  town  strengthened.  Arabs  and  Bedouins  flocked 
to  his  call.  At  Damietta,  Saint  Louis  called  a  council.  The 
Count  of  Brittany  and  the  chief  barons  thought  it  would  be 
best  to  capture  Alexandria,  a  port  well  defended  and  sheltered, 
and  in  which  the  vessels  which  brought  supplies  to  the  army 
would  find  good  anchorage.  But  the  Count  of  Artois,  the 
brother  of  Saint  Louis,  thought  it  best  to  march  straight  on 
Cairo.  44  And  he  said  also,  that  he  who  wished  to  kill  a  serpent 
should  crush  its  head.”  Saint  Louis  adopted  this  opinion, 
which  his  brother  had  been  practically  alone  in  maintaining. 

And  this  might  not  have  been  the  worst  advice  if  the  King 
had  decided  to  march  at  once  on  Cairo,  thus  taking  advantage 
of  the  confusion  into  which  their  defeat  had  thrown  the 
Saracens.  But  they  dragged  on  at  Damietta,  where  was  seen 
a  repetition  of  the  laxity,  which,  in  similar  circumstances, 
had  enervated  the  earlier  Crusades  :  feasts,  orgies  ;  after 
superhuman  efforts  an  irruption  of  luxury  and  pleasure.  The 
barons  gave  themselves  over  to  much  eating  and  strange  foods. 
The  soldiery  fell  into  similar  excesses  and  worse.  Joinville 
adds  that,  through  cupidity,  the  Crusading  lords  let  shops  and 

807 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


the  right  of  having  a  stall  in  the  town  at  exorbitant  prices, 
so  that  the  traders  from  the  Mediterranean  lands  gave  up 
coming  to  provision  the  army.  Already  the  Turks,  on  their 
swift  horses,  were  skirmishing  on  the  plain  of  Damietta,  where 
they  surprised  some  of  the  French  in  isolated  groups.  Some 
Christian  prisoners  were  taken  off  to  Cairo. 

Nedjin-Eddin,  who  directed  the  defence,  died  in  November 
1249,  in  his  fortieth  year,  after  having  named  as  his  successor 
his  son  Touran-Chah,  who  lived  at  Damascus. 

Saint  Louis  heard  of  the  death  of  the  Sultan  in  spite  of 
the  precautions  of  the  Saracens  to  hide  it.  He  immediately 
assembled  his  troops  and  ordered  them  to  march  on  Cairo. 
He  came  to  camp  at  Fariskour  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the 
Nile,  thirteen  miles  from  Damietta.  On  the  13th  December 
the  French  were  at  Bermoun,  twelve  miles  from  Mansourah. 
The  Emir  Fakhr-Eddin  had  taken  command  of  the  Moham¬ 
medans  under  the  regency  of  the  favourite  Sultana  of  Nedjin- 
Eddin,  while  awaiting  the  arrival  of  the  new  Sultan.  He  sent 
letters  to  the  inhabitants  of  Cairo  to  warn  them  of  the  approach 
of  the  French.  The  town  was  in  disorder,  the  inhabitants 
preparing  to  depart.  The  French  might  well  trust  in  the 
success  of  their  expedition.  They  appeared  before  Mansourah. 
They  were  separated  from  the  Saracens  by  one  of  the  branches 
of  the  Nile,  that  which  Makrizi  calls  the  “  Achmoun  Arm.” 
The  Crusaders  set  up  their  camp,  which  they  fortified  and 
surrounded  with  ditches.  They  constructed  machines  of  war, 
mangonels  and  trebuchets,  and  movable  towers  from  which 
they  hurled  projectiles  on  the  Saracens.  To  replenish  their 
stores,  boats  plied  up  and  down  the  river  as  far  as  Damietta. 
The  water  of  the  Nile,  delicious  for  drinking,  was  a  great  help 
to  them.  The  Crusaders,  imitating  the  Arabs,  put  it  in  vessels 
of  porous  earthenware  called  alcarazzas,  which  they  hung 
outside  their  tents.  The  water,  through  evaporation,  became 
fresh  in  the  vessels,  which  the  good  Joinville,  not  knowing 
anything  of  the  laws  of  physics,  attributes  to  the  wonderful 
qualities  of  the  Nile  water. 

Impatient  to  come  to  blows,  Saint  Louis  decided  to  throw 
a  causeway  across  the  arm  of  the  river — an  immense  labour 
and  one  which  the  Mohammedans  rendered  useless  by  hollow- 
308 


A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ERMINE 


ing  out  the  soil  on  the  eastern  bank  as  fast  as  the  French 
pushed  on  their  endeavour.  From  one  camp  to  the  other, 
across  the  Nile  waters,  Crusaders  and  Saracens  overwhelmed 
one  another  with  their  murderous  engines.  The  Saracens 
used  carrier  pigeons.  They  were  acquainted  with  the  use  of 
Greek  fire  and  even  gunpowder,  as  this  much-disputed  passage 
of  Joinville  would  seem  to  indicate  : 

“  Our  extinguishers  were  equipped  for  the  extinguishing  of 
fire  ;  and  because  the  Saracens  could  not  aim  directly  at  them, 
through  the  two  wings  of  the  pavilions  which  the  King  had 
had  made,  they  aimed  straight  towards  the  clouds,  so  that 
the  arrows  fell  directly  towards  them.  The  manner  of  the 
Greek  fire  was  this  :  it  came  well  forward  as  big  as  a  barrel  of 
verjuice,  and  the  tail  of  fire  which  issued  from  it  was  as  big  as 
a  large  sword.  It  made  such  a  noise  in  coming  that  it  was 
like  thunder  ;  it  seemed  like  a  dragon  flying  through  the  air. 
It  threw  so  great  a  light  that  one  could  see  the  army  as  though 
it  was  day  by  reason  of  the  great  size  of  the  fire  which  pro¬ 
duced  the  great  light.  Three  times  that  evening  they  hurled 
at  us  Greek  fire,  dispatching  it  from  the  towered  arbelist.” 

What  indeed  could  have  been  this  Greek  fire  which  passed 
through  the  air  with  a  noise  like  that  of  thunder  ? 

The  Crusaders  were  impatient  for  a  hand-to-hand  fight,  the 
only  form  of  combat  in  which  they  could  hope  to  triumph. 
They  were  grieving  to  realize  the  futility  of  their  efforts  to 
throw  a  dyke  across  the  Achmoun  arm  when  a  Bedouin,  for 
a  large  sum  of  money,  revealed  to  them  a  ford  not  far  from 
Mansourah.  The  French  crossed  there  on  the  8th  February 
1250.  Fourteen  hundred  horsemen  crossed  the  arm  of  the 
river,  and  after  putting  to  flight  several  bands  of  Saracens  who 
had  come  to  meet  them,  they  attacked  Mansourah  with  such 
fury  that  they  swept  into  the  town. 

Fakhr-Eddin  was  being  shaved  in  his  bath.  He  dresses 
hastily,  leaps  to  horse,  tries  to  rally  his  soldiers,  but  falls  pierced 
with  strokes  in  the  midst  of  a  band  of  Crusaders.  The  Saracens 
flee  on  all  sides.  The  French  pursue  them  beyond  Mansourah 
on  the  Cairo  road.  Carrier  pigeons  announced  the  disaster  to 
the  inhabitants  of  Cairo,  and  soon  the  first  refugees  arrived  to 
confirm  it.  All  night  the  gates  of  Cairo  remained  open  for  the 

309 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


townspeople,  who  fled  wildly.  Joinville  shows  Saint  Louis, 
at  the  head  of  his  knights,  advancing  “  with  a  great  sounding 
of  trumpets  and  timbals.”  High  above  all  the  crests  shines 
his  helmet,  surmounted  by  two  golden  lilies  crossing  each  other 
at  right  angles  ;  in  his  hand  is  a  gleaming  sword. 

He  had  penetrated  into  Mansourah,  where  the  Sultan 
Touran-Chah  had  arrived  the  day  before,  from  Damascus. 
The  King  of  France  had  already  crossed  the  threshold  of  the 
palace.  Saint  Louis  thought  that  victory  was  his  :  the  Sultan 
a  prisoner,  the  road  to  Cairo  cleared,  the  capital  of  the  Moham¬ 
medan  Empire  defenceless  in  his  hands. 

The  Arab  historians  recognize  that  if  the  French  knights 
had  been  able  to  hold  until  their  infantry  had  crossed  the  Nile, 
the  Mohammedans  would  have  been  lost.  Then  a  tragic 
reverse  occurred.  Under  the  leadership  of  Bibars-Eboudak- 
dari,  who  was  very  soon  to  be  King  of  Egypt,  the  horsemen  of 
Baharia,  the  famous  Mameluks,  resumed  the  offensive.  Some 
of  the  French  were  pursuing  the  fugitives  along  the  Cairo  road. 
An  attack  was  made  on  those  who  remained  in  the  town.  The 
inhabitants  joined  their  efforts  to  those  of  the  soldiers.  From 
the  top  of  their  flat  roofs  they  threw  down  on  the  French, 
constricted  in  the  narrow  streets,  beams,  stones,  earthenware 
vessels,  which  knocked  them  over  and  crushed  them  under 
their  heavy  armour.  Joinville  gives  us  again  the  picture  of 
these  tall  knights,  sheeted  in  iron  on  their  heavy  chargers, 
attacked  by  the  fleet  Saracens,  who  showered  on  them  from  a 
distance  a  multitude  of  sharp  arrows.  Six  Turks  had  seized 
the  King’s  horse,  trying  to  drag  him  along,  but  Saint  Louis 
freed  himself  with  great  strokes  of  his  sword.  When  the 
knights,  who  had  pursued  the  fugitives  along  the  Cairo  road, 
returned  to  Mansourah  intoxicated  with  their  victory,  their 
comrades  had  no  longer  any  thought  but  to  save  their  lives. 
The  Count  of  Artois,  the  lord  of  Coucy,  the  Earl  of  Salisbury, 
William  Longsword,  were  dead.  The  French  beat  a  retreat; 
the  flower  of  chivalry  had  fallen.  “  A  second  carrier  pigeon,” 
say  the  Arab  historians,  “  bearing  the  news  of  the  victory  won 
over  the  French,  restored  ca]m  to  the  town  (Cairo).  Joy 
succeeded  despair.  Every  one  congratulated  one  another. 
Public  rejoicing  organized  itself  spontaneously.” 

310 


A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ERMINE 


Having  recrossed  the  Nile  the  French  shut  themselves  up 
anew  in  their  camp,  where  they  soon  suffered  cruelly  from 
famine.  In  vain  they  awaited  the  boats  which,  ascending  the 
river  from  Damietta,  ought  to  have  brought  them  provisions. 
This  is  what  had  happened. 

Touran-Chah  had  had  several  boats  made  which  could  be 
taken  to  pieces.  He  had  them  transported  down  the  river¬ 
side,  across  the  sandy  plain  on  the  backs  of  camels,  put  together, 
and  launched.  These  vessels,  full  of  armed  men,  intercepted 
the  boats  full  of  food  which  were  coming  up  from  Damietta  to 
the  Crusading  army.  Communications  between  the  French 
camp  and  Damietta  were  interrupted,  and  very  soon  the  most 
terrible  famine  made  itself  felt  in  the  army. 

The  Crusaders  could  not  understand  why  boats  came  no 
longer  from  Damietta.  44  We  had  no  news  of  these  things,” 
writes  Joinville,  4 4  until  a  small  boat  belonging  the  Count  of 
Flanders  which  escaped  them  by  the  water  told  us,  and  that 
the  vessels  of  the  Soudan  had  taken  eighty  of  our  ships  which 
nad  come  to  Damietta  and  killed  the  men  in  them.”  The 
famine,  which  enforced  a  wretched  diet,  developed  under  the 
neat  of  the  African  sky  that  terrible  malady  of  camps,  dysentery. 
A  large  convoy  of  thirty-two  boats  laden  with  provisions  was 
again  intercepted  by  the  Mohammedans  on  the  16th  March 
(1250).  At  this  news  an  immense  discouragement  fell  upon 
the  Crusaders.  Saint  Louis  proposed  a  truce  to  Touran-Chah  : 
the  exchange  of  Damietta  for  Jerusalem.  The  Sultan,  con¬ 
vinced  that  the  Christians  were  ruined,  rejected  these  proposals. 

The  bodies  of  the  men  killed  in  the  battle  of  the  8th 
February  infected  the  army.  44  The  corpses,”  writes  Joinville, 
44  came  to  the  surface  of  the  water,  floating  up  to  the  bridge 
between  our  two  armies  (the  army  of  the  Saracens  and  that  of 
the  French),  and  could  not  pass  because  the  bridge  touched  the 
water.  There  were  so  many  that  the  whole  river  was  full  of 
dead  from  one  bank  to  the  other  and  for  a  length  of  a  small 
stonethrow.” 

On  the  evening  of  Tuesday  the  5th  April  the  King  gave 
the  signal  for  the  retreat  to  Damietta.  The  sick  were  to  go 
down  the  river  in  boats,  but  the  Mohammedans  organized  a 
pursuit.  They  massacred  the  sick  by  night  on  the  banks  of 

311 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


the  Nile  by  the  light  of  fires  which  they  had  kindled.  A  new 
combat  began  on  the  height  of  Fariskour.  This  is  the  second 
battle  of  Mansourah  (5th-6th  April  12.50).  Driven  back  on 
every  side,  the  French  withdrew  into  a  village  called  Minieh, 
which  occupied  the  top  of  a  hillock  of  sand.  Saint  Louis,  very 
ill,  rode  a  little  draught  horse  with  a  silk  coverlet.  He  had  on 
a  scarlet  cap  edged  with  minever.  “  Behind  him,”  says  Join¬ 
ville,  “  there  remained  of  all  the  knights  and  sergeants  only  my 
lord  Geffroy  de  Sergines,  who  conducted  the  King  to  the 
village  of  Minieh,  in  such  a  manner  that  the  King  told  me  that 
my  lord  Geffroy  de  Sergines  defended  him  from  the  Saracens 
as  a  servant  guards  his  lord’s  goblet  from  the  flies.  For  each 
time  the  Saracens  approached  he  took  his  sword  which  he  had 
put  in  his  saddle  bow  and  put  it  under  his  arm  and  ran  upon 
them,  driving  them  away  from  the  King.  And  in  this  way 
he  led  the  King  to  the  village  and  put  him  down  in  a 
house.  .  .  .” 

Elsewhere  Joinville  shows  us  Gaucher  de  Châtillon 
struggling  alone  in  a  small  street  of  the  village  against  the 
Turks  who  attacked  him  : 

“  This  street  ran  straight  through  the  village  so  that  one 
could  see  the  fields  at  each  end.  In  this  street  was  my  lord 
Gaucher  de  Châtillon,  naked  sword  in  hand.  When  he  saw 
the  Turks  coming  into  this  street  he  ran  upon  them  with  his 
sword  and  ‘  threw  ’  them  out  of  the  village  ;  and  in  their 
flight  before  him,  the  Turks,  who  aimed  behind  as  well  as  before, 
covered  him  with  darts.  When  he  had  chased  them  out  of 
the  village  he  pulled  out  the  arrows,  and  put  on  his  coat  of  arms 
and  rose  up  on  his  charger,  stretching  out  his  arms  with  his 
sword,  and  cried  :  4  Châtillon  !  Knights  !  Where  are  my 
good  men  ?  ’  ” 

Alas  !  his  good  men  were  killed  or  taken  prisoners. 

“  When  he  turned  round  and  saw  that  the  Turks  had 
entered  at  the  other  end  he  ran  on  them  again,  sword  in  hand, 
and  drove  them  off  ;  and  thus  he  did  three  times  in  the  manner 
described  above.” 

Surrounded  by  some  faithful  followers,  the  French  King 
had  taken  refuge  in  the  house  of  Abi-Abdaellah,  lord  of  Minieh. 
Weakened  by  dysentery,  he  fainted  several  times.  They 
312 


A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ERMINE 

laid  him  “  on  the  lap  of  a  woman  from  Paris  like  one  quite 
dead.” 

The  Arab  historian  Saad-Eddin  as  well  as  Joinville  and 
Saint-Pathus  relate  that  when  the  King  of  France  was  restored 
to  consciousness  he  could  have  fled  either  on  horseback  or  by 
boat  as  did  the  Papal  Legate  ;  but  he  was  unwilling  to  abandon 
his  men,  staying  among  them  till  the  last  moment.  At  last 
the  good  King  gave  himself  up  as  a  prisoner  into  the  hands 
of  the  eunuch  Djemad-Eddin-Muhsun-El-Sahil.  Saint  Louis 
and  his  brother,  Alfonse  of  Poitiers,  were  loaded  with  chains. 
They  were  shut  up  together  at  Mansourah  in  the  house  of 
Ibrahim-ben-Lokmar,  the  Sultan’s  secretary,  under  the  guard 
of  the  eunuch  Sahil.  Ten  thousand  Frenchman  had  perished 
in  this  day’s  fight,  while  hardly  a  hundred  Mohammedans  had 
met  their  death. 

“  The  King  of  France,”  writes  an  Arab,  “  was  made  to 
embark  on  the  Nile  in  a  warship.  Lie  was  escorted  by  an 
infinite  number  of  Egyptian  boats  which  led  him  in  triumph 
to  the  sound  of  timbals  and  tambours.  On  the  bank  the 
Egyptian  army  advanced  beside  the  fleet.  The  prisoners 
followed  the  army  with  their  hands  bound.”  Under  the  walls 
of  Damietta  the  Mohammedans  found  themselves  embarrassed 
by  too  great  a  number  of  prisoners.  In  the  night  they  were  led 
in  bands  of  three  or  four  hundred  to  the  banks  of  the  Nile  and, 
after  having  their  heads  cut  off,  were  thrown  into  the  river. 

The  Sultan  only  allowed  Saint  Louis  to  keep  near  him  his 
one  cook,  Ysembart.  This  latter  prepared  his  meals,  chiefly 
made  up  of  cakes,  bread,  and  meat.  The  King’s  teeth  were 
loose  in  the  gums.  He  was  so  thin  that  “  the  bones  of  his 
spine  seemed  all  points.”  He  was  so  weak  that  Ysembart 
had  to  carry  him  from  one  seat  to  another,  but  his  strength 
of  character  never  failed. 

At  length  the  question  of  ransom  was  considered.  Damietta 
would  be  given  up  in  exchange  for  the  King’s  person.  As  to 
the  other  prisoners  taken  by  the  Saracens,  their  ransom  was 
fixed  at  the  round  sum  of  500,000  pounds,  about  a  hundred 
millions  in  the  money  of  to-day. 

Hardly  was  the  treaty  concluded  than  there  broke  out 
among  the  Saracens  a  revolution  at  Court.  The  favourite 

318 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Sultana,  Chageret-Eddin,  the  widow  of  Nedjin-Eddin,  had 
exercised  the  regency  up  to  the  arrival  of  Touran-Chah.  A 
dispute  broke  out  on  the  subject  of  a  rendering  of  accounts. 
The  Sultana  formed  a  party  with  Bibars,  the  head  of  the 
Mameluks.  On  the  2nd  May  1250,  Saint  Louis  was  in  his 
tent  with  his  brother  when  there  broke  out  a  great  noise  outside. 
The  conspirators  were  attacking  the  Sultan.  He  took  refuge 
at  the  top  of  a  wooden  tower  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile.  The 
Mameluks  set  fire  to  it.  Touran-Chah  flung  himself  from  the 
top  of  the  tower  into  the  river,  where  he  was  dispatched  with 
arrows.  The  Sultana  Chageret-Eddin  was  declared  Queen  of 
Egypt.  She  was  the  first  slave  who  had  ever  ruled  the  country. 
After  having  bought  her,  Nedjin-Eddin  had  become  attached 
to  her.  Bibars,  the  chief  of  the  Mameluks,  succeeded  her  on 
the  throne.  He  founded  a  new  power,  that  of  that  military 
guard  which  had  surrounded  the  Sultans  up  to  the  day  on 
which  it  had  seized  the  power.  The  Mameluks  dominated 
Egypt  up  to  the  nineteenth  century. 

They  proceeded  to  the  execution  of  the  treaty.  The  days 
of  the  7th  and  8th  May  were  spent  in  paying  out  to  the  Saracens 
part  of  the  ransom.  It  was  necessary  to  pay  later  three  hundred 
thousand  pounds.  If  we  can  believe  the  instructions  given, 
some  hundred  years  later  (1360),  to  the  commissaries  charged 
with  the  raising  of  the  money  for  the  ransom  of  King  John, 
the  expenses  occasioned  by  the  Egyptian  expedition  and  the 
ransom  of  the  prisoners  produced  such  an  impoverishment 
of  the  kingdom  in  France,  that  they  were  obliged  to  make 
leather  money.  “  And  there  is  still  some  of  this  in  the  tower 
of  the  Louvre,”  adds  the  writer  of  the  circular. 

Saint  Louis  set  sail  for  Palestine,  which  he  still  hoped  to 
deliver,  while  his  departure  inspired  the  Arab  poet  Essahib- 
Giemal-Edden-ben-Mahoub  with  verses  which  have  been 
translated  as  follows  : 

“  Carry  to  the  French  King  when  you  see  him  these  words 
written  by  an  advocate  of  the  truth. 

“You  landed  in  Egypt  sure  of  capturing  it  :  you  thought 
it  was  peopled  only  with  cowards,  you  who  are  but  a  drum 
filled  with  wind  ! 

“  You  thought  that  the  time  for  ruining  the  Mohammedans 


314 


A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ERMINE 


had  arrived,  and  through  this  false  notion  closed  your  eyes  to 
the  difficulties. 

“You  have  left  your  soldiers  on  the  plains  of  Egypt  where 
their  tombs  are  open  along  your  path. 

“  What  remains  to  you  of  the  seventy  thousand  who  accom¬ 
panied  you  ?  Dead,  wounded,  captive. 

“  May  God  inspire  you  often  with  like  designs  ;  they  will 
cause  the  ruin  of  the  Christians,  and  Egypt  will  have  nothing 
to  fear  from  their  fury. 

“No  doubt  your  priests  promised  you  victories. 

“  Give  ear  to  a  more  enlightened  oracle. 

“  If  the  desire  of  vengeance  impels  you  to  return  to  Egypt, 
he  assures  you  that  the  house  of  Lockmar  (in  which  Saint  Louis 
was  imprisoned)  is  still  there,  that  the  chain  is  ready,  and  that 
the  eunuch  (who  guarded  Saint  Louis)  is  on  the  alert.” 

Saint  Louis  remained  four  years  in  Palestine  repairing  or 
building  fortresses,  Acre,  Jaffa,  Cæsarea,  Sidonia.  He  was 
seen  mingling  with  the  masons,  carrying  stones  and  basketsful 
of  quicklime.  The  good  King  often  took  part  in  the  combats 
which  became  frequent  round  St.  Jean  d’Acre.  “  He  carried 
in  person  the  decomposed  and  smelling  bodies  to  bury  them 
in  the  ditches.”  He  offered  the  King  of  England,  through 
messengers,  to  give  him  Normandy  and  Poitou  if  he  would 
join  him  with  his  men-at-arms  in  Asia  Minor.  This  would 
have  destroyed  the  work  of  Philip  Augustus.  Happily  for 
France  the  proposal  was  rejected. 

About  the  end  of  November  1252,  Blanche  of  Castile, 
regent  of  the  kingdom  during  the  King’s  absence,  died  in  Paris. 
When  the  news  reached  Saint  Louis,  he  realized  that  his  duty 
at  length  recalled  him  to  be  among  his  subjects.  It  was, 
however,  only  on  the  24th  April  1254  that  he  re-embarked  for 
France  with  his  wife  and  children. 

It  is  difficult,  at  so  great  a  distance  of  time,  to  appraise 
the  work  of  Saint  Louis  in  Egypt  and  Syria.  If  his  success 
did  not  correspond  to  his  efforts,  at  least  these  efforts  were  not 
barren.  Saint  Louis  left  great  memories  in  Egypt  which 
produced  consequences  glorious  for  the  French  name,  and  still 
effective  in  our  own  day.  In  Syria  he  strengthened  for  half 
a  century  the  tottering  power  of  the  Christian  princes, 

315 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

contributing  there  also  to  the  maintenance  of  French 
influence. 

After  his  return  to  France,  Saint  Louis  visited  several 
parts  of  his  kingdom,  to  inquire  into  the  character  of  judicial 

administration.  He  was  able  to  verify  the 
Fran^^Urn  sacr^ces  which  the  country  had  had  to  impose 

on  itself  to  cope  with  the  Egyptian  expedition. 

The  piety  of  the  King  increases,  and  his  humility  and 
charity  too.  He  only  dresses  now  in  dark  colours,  deep  blue, 
brown  or  black.  The  materials  of  his  garments  are  of  wool 
or  common  camelin.  The  furred  parts  are  of  moderate  price, 
being  of  deer,  hare,  or  lamb.  He  was  equally  restrained  at 
table,  having  the  poor  to  eat  in  his  room  and  serving  them 
himself. 

In  pursuance  of  his  rôle  of  peacemaker,  he  made  with  the 
King  of  Aragon  a  treaty  similar  to  the  one  he  had  made  with 
the  King  of  England.  In  it  was  found  the  same  desire  for 
harmony,  the  same  thirst  for  justice  (Treaty  of  Corbeil,  11th 
May  1258).  In  exchange  for  the  claims  which  the  King  of 
Aragon  put  forward  to  various  French  provinces,  Saint  Louis 
renounced  the  claims  of  the  French  Crown  to  Roussillon  and 
the  province  of  Barcelona.  The  King  of  Aragon  kept  in 
France  only  the  suzerainty  of  Montpelier.  Isabella,  daughter 
of  James  I  of  Aragon,  married  Philip,  the  son  of  Saint  Louis, 
who  was  one  day  to  become  Philip  III,  and  the  Spanish  prince 
gave  up  to  his  cousin  Marguerite,  wife  of  the  French  King, 
his  rights  over  Provence,  and  to  the  King  of  France  himself 
his  pretended  rights  over  Languedoc. 

At  length  in  1262  there  occurred  an  event  whose  conse¬ 
quences  contemporaries  could  not  yet  foresee.  A  French  pope, 
Urban  IV,  offered  to  Saint  Louis,  through  Albert  de  Parma, 
one  of  his  notaries,  the  kingdom  of  Sicily  as  a  fief  of  the  Holy 
See.  Louis  IX  declined  the  offer  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff 
for  himself  and  his  children  ;  but  his  brother,  Charles  of  Anjou, 
accepted  it.  Such  was  the  origin  of  those  Italian  expeditions 
which  were  to  appeal  to  the  French  for  two  centuries,  and  cost 
them  so  much  exertion,  blood,  and  money. 

The  deliverance  of  the  Holy  Places  remained  the  constant 
preoccupation  of  the  King.  On  the  25th  March  1267,  the 
316 


A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ERMINE 


feast  of  the  Annunciation,  before  a  numerous  gathering  of 
the  great  nobles  and  in  presence  of  the  Papal  Legate,  Saint 

Louis,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  French 
o^Tunis89^6  himself  spoke  and  set  forth  to  his  nobles 

the  reasons  working  in  favour  of  a  new  Crusade. 
From  this  day  forth  he  was  always  thinking  of  it.  The  King 
took  three  years  to  prepare  for  this  new  expedition  ;  but  he 
was  very  ill,  and  it  was  with  a  feeling  of  despair  that  his  most 
devoted  helpers  saw  him  persisting  in  his  resolution.  Join¬ 
ville  expresses  it  strongly  :  “  Those  who  recommended  the 

Crusade  to  him  were  guilty  of  mortal  sin  ;  for  the  whole  kingdom 
was  at  peace  and  he  with  all  his  neighbours  ...  a  great  sin 
did  those  commit  who  advised  the  Crusade  in  view  of  his 
great  bodily  weakness.  He  could  not  bear  to  be  carried  in  a 
vehicle  or  to  ride  on  horseback.  His  weakness  was  so  great 
that  it  gave  him  pain  when  I  carried  him  in  my  arms  from  the 
house  of  the  Count  of  Auxerre  to  the  Franciscan  monastery, 
where  I  took  leave  of  him.  And  even  though  he  was  so  feeble, 
if  he  had  remained  in  France  he  could  still  have  lived  and  done 
much  good  and  many  good  works.” 

But  when,  in  his  gentle  obstinacy,  Saint  Louis  had  come 
to  a  decision  it  became  difficult  to  divert  him  from  it.  He 
pressed  Joinville  to  take  ship  with  him.  The  good  seneschal 
refused,  and  the  reasons  he  gives  are  interesting  to  note. 
“  While  I  had  been  in  the  service  of  God  and  the  King  across 
the  seas  (Egyptian  Crusade)  the  sergeants  of  the  King  of  France 
and  of  the  King  of  Navarre  (Count  of  Champagne)  had  destroyed 
and  impoverished  my  people.  .  .  .  And  I  said  to  them  (Saint 
Louis  and  the  Count  of  Champagne,  who  were  pressing  him 
to  join  the  Crusade)  that  if  I  wished  to  aec  according  to  the 
will  of  God,  I  should  remain  here  to  aid  and  defend  my  people  ; 
for  if  I  should  risk  my  body  .  .  .  there  where  I  saw  quite 
clearly  it  would  be  to  the  disadvantage  and  injury  of  my 
people,  I  should  offend  God  Who  gave  His  Body  to  save  His 
people.” 

These  are  valuable  lines.  They  show  how,  during  the 
Crusade,  the  King’s  men,  profiting  by  the  absence  of  the  nobles, 
continued  to  extend  the  sovereign  authority  over  their  domains. 
Thev  also  show  all  the  services  the  lords  could  still  render  to 

317 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


their  tenants,  when,  remaining  amongst  them,  they  occupied 
themselves  zealously  with  their  interests  as  did  the  good  Lord 
of  Joinville. 

The  royal  fleet  set  sail  for  the  African  coast  on  the  1st  July 
1270.  The  King  had  been  persuaded  by  his  brother,  Charles  of 
Anjou,  titular  King  of  Sicily,  to  direct  his  arms  on  Tunis,  in 
order  to  destroy  in  their  dens  the  Barbary  pirates  who  infested 
the  Mediterranean.  Circumstances,  moreover,  seemed  to  him 
to  favour  an  attack,  for  the  country  was  weakened  by  a  terrible 
famine.  On  the  21st  July,  Saint  Louis  landed  in  sight  of  Tunis 
and  laid  siege  to  the  town. 

The  French  fortified  their  camp.  The  lack  of  water  in¬ 
volved  them  in  great  suffering.  From  the  neighbouring  heights 
the  Arabs,  with  enormous  machines,  raised  clouds  of  burning 
sand  which  covered  the  encampments  of  the  Crusaders.  It  is 
impossible  not  to  be  reminded  of  the  asphyxiating  gas  of  the 
Boches.  And  then  the  plague  made  its  appearance.  Never¬ 
theless,  the  French  won  a  brilliant  victory  under  the  walls  of 
the  town,  and  already  the  Tunisians  were  despairing  of  their 
fate  when,  on  the  25th  August  1270,  the  holy  King  died  in  his 
tent,  succumbing  to  extreme  weakness  aggravated  by  dysentery. 
He  breathed  his  last  on  a  bed  of  ashes,  his  hands  joined,  his 
eyes  turned  towards  Heaven. 

His  reign  has  remained  one  of  the  most  popular  in  our 
history.  It  coincided  with  the  period  in  which  the  feudal 
institutions  of  which  the  monarchy  formed  the  keystone, 
reached  their  maturity.  Now  no  one  has  better  or  more  com¬ 
pletely  personified  these  institutions  than  Saint  Louis.  We 
have  tried  to  show  that  they  were  essentially  founded  on  the 
exercise  of  justice,  on  love,  and  reciprocal  devotion.  And 
this  circumstance,  more  than  any  other  cause,  has  perhaps 
formed  the  greatness  and  beauty  of  this  reign. 

Philip  III,  surnamed  the  Bold,  who  succeeded  his  father, 
Saint  Louis,  on  the  throne,  was  like  him  pious  and  good.  Of 

a  generous  nature,  he  gave  to  the  poor  and 

Saint  Louis  surrounded  himself  with  Churchmen.  More  even 

than  his  father  he  had  the  air  of  a  monk  wearing 
the  Crown,  in  spite  of  the  passion  with  which  his  second  wife, 
Mary  of  Brabant,  inspired  him.  At  the  beginning  of  his  reign 
318 


A  JUSTICIARY  IN  ERMINE 


he  was  dominated  by  his  favourite  the  Chamberlain,  Pierre  de 
la  Broce,  who  succumbed  to  Court  intrigues  and  was  hanged 
in  the  June  of  1278.  After  this  Mathieu,  Abbot  of  St.  Denis, 
had  the  direction  of  the  government.  This  abbot  continued 
the  traditions  of  Saint  Louis,  of  whom  he  had  been  a 
councillor. 

On  the  death  of  Alfonse  de  Poitiers,  the  brother  of  Louis  IX, 
his  immense  heritage  reverted,  by  default  of  heirs,  to  the  French 
Crown.  But  Henry  III,  the  King  of  England,  put  forward 
some  claims  founded  on  the  Treaty  of  Paris  (1259).  After  his 
death  (1272),  they  were  taken  up  by  his  son,  Edward  I,  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  of  the  princes  who  have  occupied  the 
English  throne.  In  conformity  with  the  promises  made  by  his 
father,  Philip  III  gave  up  Agenais  to  the  English  monarch 
(Treaty  of  Amiens,  23rd  May  1273).  Another  part  of  the 
heritage  of  Alfonse,  the  Comtat-Venaissin,  was  given  up  to 
the  Sovereign  Pontiff. 

The  end  of  the  reign  was  marked  by  the  Aragon  expedition, 
the  origin  of  which  is  found  in  the  rivalry  which  broke  out 
in  Sicily  between  Peter  III  of  Aragon  and  Charles  of  Anjou. 
The  insurrection  of  the  Sicilian  vespers,  in  which  the  French 
were  massacred,  was  caused  by  the  instigation  of  the  Spanish 
emissaries.  Soon  afterwards  the  Catalonian  fleet  won  a  victory 
over  that  of  Charles  of  Anjou,  and  Peter  of  Aragon  had  himself 
proclaimed  King  of  Sicily.  Pope  Martin  IV  was  French  by 
birth.  He  declared  Peter  of  Aragon  deprived  of  his  crown 
and  freed  his  subjects  from  the  obligation  of  fidelity.  Philip  III 
accepted  the  kingdom  of  Aragon  from  the  hands  of  the  Pope. 
He  had  still  to  win  it.  The  expedition  against  the  excom¬ 
municated  Peter  III  took  the  form  of  a  crusade.  It  has  been 
truly  remarked  that  the  campaign  of  1285,  in  Spain,  was  the 
first  war  of  conquest  entered  upon  by  the  Kings  of  France 
beyond  their  natural  frontiers.  Philip  III  led  an  imposing 
army  across  the  Pyrenees.  On  the  28th  June  he  laid  siege 
to  Gironne.  A  serious  reverse  for  the  French  King  was  the 
destruction  by  Roger  de  Loria,  of  his  fleet  with  stores 
to  replenish  the  supplies  (4th  September).  Philip  III  was 
attacked  by  the  disease  of  the  army.  Gironne  was  taken,  but 
the  army  had  to  beat  a  retreat  with  the  state  of  the  King 

319 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


growing  daily  worse.  The  son  of  Saint  Louis  died  on  the  road 
from  Paris  to  Perpignan,  on  the  5th  October  1285. 

Sources.— Joinville,  Vie  de  Saint  Louis ,  ed.  N.  de  Wailly,  1881  ;  G. 
de  Saint-Pathus,  Vie  de  Saint  Louis,  ed.  Delaborde,  1889  ;  Makrizi,  Histoire 
de  V Egypte,  translated  by  Blochet  ;  Les  Etablissements  de  Saint  Louis,  ed. 
Viollet,  1881-86,  4  vols. 

Historical  Works. — Edg.  Boutaric,  Saint  Louis  et  Alfonse  de  Poitiers, 
1870  ;  H.  Wallon,  Saint  Louis  et  son  temps ,  1875,  2  vols.  ;  Elie  Berger, 
Histoire  de  Blanche  de  Castille,  1895  ;  Ch.  V.  Langlois,  in  the  Histoire  de 
France ,  edited  by  Lavisse,  iii.  1901  ;  L.  Brehier,  L'Eglise  et  l'Orient  au 
Moyen  Age,  les  Croisades ,  2nd  ed.,  1907  ;  Ch.  V.  Langlois,  Le  Règne  de 
Philippe  le  Hardi ,  1887. 


320 


CHAPTER  XV 


THE  MINIATURES 

The  first  books  with  miniatures  are  executed  in  the  monasteries. 
Imitation  of  the  Byzantines.  The  decorative  art  of  the  eleventh 
century.  The  art  of  miniature  begins  to  be  laicized  under 
Philip  Augustus.  The  Psalter  of  Ingeburg.  A  workshop  of 
the  miniaturists.  The  manufacture  of  colours.  The  taste  for 
Nature.  The  circumstances  of  the  miniaturists.  Painting 
with  oils.  The  miniaturists  Honoré  and  Jean  Pucelle.  The 
French  painters  of  the  Renaissance. 

U  A  ND  as  the  writer  who  has  finished  his  book  illuminates 
/-%  it  with  gold  and  blue,  so  the  said  King  illuminated 
his  kingdom  .  .  .”  says  Joinville,  speaking  of  the 
good  works  of  Saint  Louis.  The  comparison  is  charming  and 
appropriate  with  regard  to  a  reign  in  which  the  art  of  miniature 
shed  such  an  attractive  lustre. 

What  was  a  miniaturist  ?  This  name  was  originally  applied 
to  the  miniator ,  the  person  who  drew  in  red,  in  minium ,  the  tall 
initials  of  the  manuscripts. 

Under  the  Merovingians  and  the  Carolingians  the  majority 
of  the  books  with  miniatures  were  produced  in  the  monasteries. 
There  was  no  abbey  without  its  scriptorium ,  a  workshop  in 
which  writers  and  illuminators  worked.  They  copied  Byzan¬ 
tine  works,  giving  them  a  heavier  rendering.  They  put  their 
originality  into  the  complexity  and  exaggeration  of  forms 
and  designed  grotesque  monsters  which  they  surrounded  with 
tortured  ornament. 

We  should  not  find  earlier  than  the  eleventh  century  a 
miniaturist  drawing  his  inspiration  from  Nature  and  life.  It 
is  true  that,  after  having  abandoned  their  first  guides,  the 
Byzantines,  the  artist  of  the  eleventh  century  no  longer 
ventures  on  full-page  compositions.  His  brush  was  reduced 

X  321 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


to  the  ornamentation  of  the  initials,  but  with  fancy,  ingenuity, 
and  often  with  the  most  agreeable  delicacy. 

One  of  the  reasons  which  kept  the  illuminators  so  long  in 
these  narrow  ways  was  that  they  were,  nearly  all,  up  to  the 
middle  of  the  twelfth  century,  religious.  Hence  this  lack  of 
fire.  Not  that  religion  would  have  been  incapable  of  pro¬ 
ducing  great  artists  ;  but  the  composition  and  details  of  their 
work  were  imposed  on  them  by  tradition.  It  was  a  hieratic 
art. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century,  under  Philip 
Augustus,  there  begins  to  glow,  on  the  white  sheets  of  vellum, 
a  new  art.  The  miniaturist  has  left  the  monastery  and  become 
a  layman.  In  Paris,  under  Philip  Augustus,  is  founded  that 
famous  school  of  miniaturists  which  Dante,  a  century  later,  will 
declare  to  be  the  best  in  the  world  : 

,  .  .  and  the  honour  of  this  art 
Which  is  called  illumination  in  Paris. 

(Purgatorio,  xi.  v.  80.) 

The  Psalter  of  Ingeburg  of  Denmark,  preserved  at  Chan¬ 
tilly,  forms  a  remarkable  example  of  the  art  of  the  Parisian 
miniaturists  under  Philip  Augustus.  We  may  quote  equally 
one  of  the  gems  of  the  Bibliothèque  de  l’Arsenal  :  the  Psalter 
described  as  “of  Saint  Louis,”  which  seems  to  have  belonged 
to  Louis  IX  after  having  passed  through  the  hands  of  Blanche 
of  Castile. 

The  use  of  colours  also  becomes  more  varied.  Up  to 
the  last  third  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  miniaturists  hardly 
employed  any  but  the  simplest  colours — blue,  red,  black,  some¬ 
times  pale  yellow,  not  to  speak  of  their  backgrounds  of  gold. 
Now  appears  a  new  colour,  a  composite  colour — green.  Thus 
the  use  of  green  affords  us  a  valuable  means  of  dating  the 
miniatures  of  this  period. 

What  we  should  call  the  primitive  period  of  the  miniature 
goes  as  far  as  the  reign  of  Philip  Augustus.  The  thirteenth 
century  corresponds  to  the  period  of  stained  glass.  The  brush 
traces  pages  which  might  seem  to  be  designs  for  stained-glass 
windows.  It  seems  certain,  too,  that  our  artists  drew  their 
inspiration  at  this  period  from  the  sublime  stained  glass,  the 
322 


THE  MINIATURES 


glory  of  the  cathedrals.  In  this  imitation,  they  go  so  far  as 
to  keep,  in  their  little  pictures,  the  black  lines  which  represent 
the  lead  settings,  in  which  in  church  windows  the  pieces  of 
coloured  glass  are  inserted. 

At  the  same  time  the  illuminator  seeks  to  free  himself  from 
the  narrow  rules  which  the  hieratical  traditions  imposed  on  the 
composition  of  pictures.  In  a  descent  from  the  Cross  the  body 
of  Christ  was  to  be  held  in  a  certain  way,  the  Virgin’s  cloak 
should  be  of  a  fixed  shade,  the  Magdalen  kneeling  in  a  place 
precisely  fixed.  From  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century 
the  artists  make  efforts  to  vary  the  poses  of  their  personages, 
and  to  give  variety  to  the  groups.  At  times  the  blue,  red,  and 
brown  of  the  robes  present  shades  different  from  those  which 
were  up  to  then  held  sacred.  The  first  artist  whose  brush 
dared  to  clothe  the  Virgin  in  a  robe  which  was  not  blue  appears 
as  a  bold  innovator.  They  were  bids  for  freedom  as  yet 
hesitating.  Towards  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century 
there  comes  the  artist  who,  in  a  picture  of  the  Nativity,  re¬ 
presents  the  Divine  Child  resting  in  the  arms  of  His  mother, 
instead  of  showing  Him,  according  to  rule,  lying  in  the  crib 
under  the  muzzles  of  the  ox  and  ass  : 

Between  the  ox  and  the  grey  ass 
Sleeps  the  little  Son.  .  .  . 

It  was  a  new  movement  whose  revolutionary  audacity  we  can 
hardly  imagine  now. 

Finally,  from  the  reign  of  Saint  Louis,  one  comes  across, 
more  and  more  frequently  as  the  years  flow  on,  miniatures 
on  parchment,  no  longer  of  religious  subjects. 

It  has  often  been  remarked,  à  propos  of  the  miniatures  of 
the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  that  they  are  nearly  all 
of  very  fine  quality,  while  from  the  second  half  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  beside  works  of  great  merit  there  appear  a  great 
number  of  mediocre  productions.  It  is  because,  in  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries,  only  sovereign  princes  and  very 
exalted  personages  could  put  manuscripts  ornamented  with 
miniatures  in  their  libraries.  Later  parchment  will  be  manu¬ 
factured  more  cheaply,  and  colours  also,  at  the  same  time  losing 
their  quality,  and  Books  of  Hours  will  become  commoner, 

323 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


within  reach  of  more  modest  purses.  By  a  natural  consequence 
their  quality  will  diminish. 

Let  us  penetrate  now  into  those  old  workshops,  the  humble 
cradles  of  modern  painting.  We  find  there,  gathered  round  a 
master  or  patron,  four  or  five  poor  folk,  men  and  women. 
They  are  bent  over  their  work.  The  volume  to  be  illustrated 
has  been  sent  in  loose  leaves  to  the  head  of  the  workshop. 
The  calligrapher  has  finished  his  work,  being  careful  to  leave 
blank  the  pages,  margins,  or  squares  destined  for  pictures 
and  initials,  where  the  miniaturist  is  to  apply  his  brush.  The 
head  of  the  workshop  examines  these  blank  spaces  carefully 
and  then  divides  the  work  among  the  collaborators.  Often 
the  scribe  has  noted,  with  regard  to  the  blank  space,  the  scene 
which  the  miniaturist  is  to  represent  ;  or  even  on  the  blank 
space  itself.  This  direction,  if  it  is  written  in  the  margin,  must 
be  effaced  ;  if  it  is  drawn  in  the  blank  space,  it  will  be  covered 
by  the  painting. 

The  head  of  the  workshop,  having  mastered  these  notes, 
divides  the  leaves  among  the  collaborators.  He  adds  some 
verbal  instructions  or  writes  them  on  the  manuscript,  or  he 
may  make  some  rapid  sketches,  either  in  the  margin  or  in  the 
very  place  which  the  miniature  is  to  fill. 

Through  a  fortunate  negligence  these  sketches  which  ought 
to  have  been  effaced  were  sometimes  left.  The  leaves  of  more 
than  one  manuscript  lay  them  before  our  eyes  to-day.  And 
these  sketches,  jotted  down  in  the  margin  of  the  miniature 
which  they  inspired,  are  nearly  always  superior  to  it.  Thus 
the  work  of  the  master  is  distinguished  from  that  of  his  assist¬ 
ants.  An  expression  which  has  come  down  to  us,  “  made  by 
a  master  hand  ”  ( fait  de  main  de  maître ),  is  thus  explained. 
William  the  Marshall  in  his  Book  of  Truth  ( Livre  du  Voir  dit) 
describes  a  chapel  decorated  artistically  : 

And  a  very  beautiful  chapel 

Painted  with  gold  by  a  master  hand.  .  .  . 

We  come  now  to  the  preparation  of  the  colours.  They 
are  diluted  in  water  with  pine  or  fir  gum  added  to  it,  except 
minium  (red  lead)  and  ceruse  (white  lead),  for  which  white 
of  egg  is  preferred.  We  have  several  books  of  recipes  drawn 
324 


THE  MINIATURES 


up  by  artists  or  amateurs  of  the  time.  The  first  is  the  cele¬ 
brated  treatise  of  the  monk  Theophilus,  Schedula  diversarum 
artium.  Its  compilation  is  not  so  old  as  has  been  thought. 
It  seems  difficult  to  date  it  farther  back  than  the  twelfth 
century.  Scholars  have  even  thought  they  could  identify 
the  monk  Theophilus  with  a  certain  Rogkerus,  a  celebrated 
goldsmith,  who  lived  about  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth 
century  in  the  Benedictine  monastery  of  Helmerhausen,  near 
Paderborn. 

A  second  collection,  two  centuries  later,  since  it  dates  from 
the  fourteenth  century,  is  that  in  which  Jean  le  Besgue  gives 
the  rules  and  recipes  of  the  miniaturists  for  the  composition 
of  their  little  pictures  and  of  their  colours. 

The  striking  point  in  the  old  miniatures  is  the  brightness 
of  the  gold  portions.  They  shine  even  now  like  plates  of 
glowing  metal.  They  are  sheets  of  beaten  gold  resting  on 
parchment.  Theophilus  speaks  of  them  as  follows  : 

44  To  apply  gold  or  silver,  take  some  of  the  light  part  of 
beaten  white  of  egg,  without  water.  With  this  coat  by  means  of 
a  brush  the  place  where  the  gold  or  silver  is  to  go.  Moistening 
in  your  mouth  the  end  of  the  same  brush,  you  will  touch  with 
it  the  corner  of  the  leaf  ready  cut.  Then  lifting  it  very  quickly 
place  it  on  the  prepared  place  and  spread  it  out  with  a  dry 
brush.  At  this  moment  it  behoves  you  to  take  precautions 
against  the  air  :  hold  your  breath,  for  if  you  breathe  you  will 
lose  the  leaf  and  only  find  it  again  with  difficulty.  When 
this  is  in  position  and  dry,  place  another,  if  you  wish,  on  top 
of  it  in  the  same  way,  and  a  third  if  necessary,  so  that  you 
may  give  a  more  brilliant  polish  with  a  tooth  (of  a  bear,  beaver, 
or  wild  boar)  or  with  a  stone  (agate  or  amethyst).” 

44  Begin  by  rubbing  the  gold  quite  gently,”  says  Le  Besgue, 
44  then  harder,  then  so  vigorously  that  the  perspiration  stands 
out  on  your  forehead.” 

The  brilliance  given  to  the  gold  leaf  by  the  burnisher  kept 
all  its  sparkling  character  after  several  centuries. 

In  giving  their  orders,  the  patrons  demanded  that  the 
material  used  should  be  of  proper  quality  :  the  painter  shall 
use,  we  read  in  a  contract,  44  fine  gold,”  and  44  good  and 
sufficient  ”  colours. 


325 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Moreover,  our  artists  used  chiefly  vegetable  colours.  If  we 
may  believe  Jean  le  Besgue,  the  blue  was  extracted  straight 
from  the  corn-flower. 

“To  make  paint  of  an  azure  blue,  take  the  pure  juice  of 
corn-flowers,  and  make  on  wood  or  parchment  a  field  of  white 
of  lead,  then  put  the  juice  over  the  said  field,  in  three,  four, 
or  five  layers  or  more,  if  need  be,  and  you  will  have  the  colour 
of  azure.” 

To  gather  the  flowers  necessary  for  their  pretty  compositions 
the  miniaturists  went  with  the  first  light  of  dawn  into  the 
fields,  their  feet  wet  with  the  dew.  “  Go  in  the  morning, 
at  sunrise,  to  the  fields  and  gather  various  corn-flowers  and  other 
plants,”  says  Jean  le  Besgue. 

They  extracted  carmine  from  the  sap  of  ivy. 

Our  illuminators  realized  fully  the  captivating  charm  of 
the  beauty  of  Nature,  which  they  reproduced  in  their  delicate 
works,  as  did  their  colleagues  the  sculptors  of  the  cathedrals. 
All  the  flora  of  our  country,  its  fauna,  birds,  butterflies,  delicate 
plants,  are  reproduced  with  graceful  fancy  in  their  picturesque 
framings.  Not  only  do  they  take  from  the  fields  the  flowers 
necessary  for  the  manufacture  of  their  colours  ;  they  gather 
there  also  models  which  they  carry  back  in  shining  armsful 
to  their  workshop,  where  they  copy  their  forms  and  shades 
with  loving  faithfulness  : 

...  It  was  the  sweet  month  of  April 
When  the  weather  is  suave  and  soft 
Towards  all  folk  and  lovers  ; 

The  nightingale,  in  the  morning, 

Sings  so  clearly  in  the  trees 

That  all  creatures  languish  with  love  ; 

The  lady  has  risen, 

Having  long  lain  awake  : 

She  has  gone  into  her  garden, 

With  bare  feet  wet  with  dew.  .  .  . 

Thus  the  Middle  Ages  had,  in  the  most  charming  way,  the 
feeling  for  Nature,  and  expressed  it  with  a  frank  sincerity,  in 
the  tympans  of  its  churches,  in  the  verses  of  its  poets,  in  the 
fine  illuminations  of  its  painters.  The  Books  of  Hours  generally 
open  with  a  calendar  in  which  are  noted  the  principal  feasts 
326 


THE  MINIATURES 

of  the  year  ;  and  our  artists,  to  give  the  character  of  each  month, 
celebrate  here  rustic  labours  and  the  satisfactions  they  can 
give. 

Nature  sleeps  in  January  ;  and  one  stays  at  home,  in  the 
house  fast  shut,  the  back  to  the  fire  and  the  front  to  the  table. 
This  is  the  intimate  and  picturesque  image  with  which  the 
illuminators  represent  the  first  month  of  the  year.  Jean 
Corbichon  says  that  44  February  is  represented  in  painting  as 
an  old  man  who  sits  at  the  fire  warming  his  feet,  because  then 
the  cold  is  at  its  height,  the  sun  being  too  far  away  from  us.” 
Round  the  house,  luminous,  there  stretches  the  country.  The 
sky  hangs  low,  the  plain  sleeps  under  the  snow  on  which  the 
crows  throw  the  dark  stains  of  their  folded  wings.  In  March 
the  fields  awake.  This  month  is  represented  by  the  vine¬ 
dressers  who  prune  the  vine  shoots,  or  a  wood-cutter  who 
shuffles  with  his  lagging  steps  the  brown  leaves  of  the  forest. 
In  April  the  miniaturist  takes  pleasure  in  showing  the  thickets 
which  are  taking  on  colour,  the  fields  of  a  tender  green  where 
the  enamel  work  of  the  flowers  sows  a  speckled  field  of  bright 
colour.  It  is  the  time  of  the  renewal  of  love  in  its  first  stirrings. 
The  betrothed  exchange  pledges  with  a  tenderness  they  believe 
eternal,  a  bunch  of  flowers,  a  green  crown,  a  gold  ring,  a  silver 
necklace.  Round  them  little  boys  and  girls  weave  chaplets  of 
flowers.  The  month  of  May  is  symbolized  by  a  cavalcade  under 
the  verdant  arches  of  the  forest.  The  ladies  have  put  on  the 
livery  of  May,  44  gay  green  ”  ;  their  heads  are  laden  with 
flowers.  It  is  the  feast  of  the  Queen  of  May.  On  the  1st  May 
every  one  was  expected  to  wear  a  green  sprig  under  pain  of 
being  mobbed,  whence  the  saying,  44  I  take  you  without  green  ” 
{Je  vous  prends  sans  vert).  Or,  again,  the  young  folk  dance  in 
the  fields  singing  their  roundelays  : 

In  May  when  the  fields  are  flowering 
And  the  rose  is  new, 

I  rode  through  a  cornfield 
All  the  length  of  the  path. 

There  I  saw  a  shepherdess 
Who  was  very  joyful, 

And  sang  : 

“  Margueron,  shame  be  to  her 
Who  refuses  well  to  love.” 


327 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Margueron  has  heard 
This  one  who  calls  to  her  ; 

This  song  is  much  to  her  taste, 

She  leaps  with  joy  at  it. 

Then  I  saw  another  damozel 
Who  wore  a  wreath  of  flowers, 

And  said  : 

“  Margueron,  shame  be  to  her 
Who  refuses  well  to  love.” 

Sometimes,  too,  the  month  of  May  is  represented  by  hunt¬ 
ing  with  the  falcon  :  44  It  is  represented  in  painting  as  a  young 
man  on  horseback  who  carries  a  bird  on  his  hand  ”  (Corbichon). 

June  is  characterized  by  haymaking.  44  It  is  represented  in 
painting  as  a  reaper  who  reaps  the  field,  for  at  that  time  the 
grass  is  ripe  and  ready  to  gather  in.”  Some  artists  put  the 
harvest  at  this  time  :  witness  the  reaper  who  cuts  down  the 
corn  with  a  scythe,  the  corn  which  bends  its  heavy  ears  ;  a 
little  way  off  girls  tie  up  the  sheaves,  and  the  peasants  shear 
their  sheep.  Other  miniaturists  of  a  more  precocious  temper 
show  us  already  harrowing  in  June.  Generally  the  harvest 
is  reserved  for  July.  In  August,  says  Corbichon,  44  the  corn 
is  gathered  into  the  barns,  and  therefore  the  painters  represent 
it  as  a  thresher  who  threshes  the  corn  with  a  flail.”  At  other 
times  it  is  hunting  with  the  falcon.  September  is  represented 
44  in  painting  as  a  grape-gatherer  who  cuts  the  grapes  and  puts 
them  in  a  basket.”  Among  the  sticks  supporting  the  vines, 
bruised  and  coloured  by  autumn,  vine-dressers,  men  and 
women,  are  seen  bending  over  the  luscious  bunches  with  which 
they  fill  their  hampers  ;  or  again  in  the  sheds,  with  their  wood 
burnt  by  the  weather,  the  grapes  are  pressed  in  the  vats.  At 
another  time  the  grape-gatherers  are  replaced  by  a  woman 
gathering  apples.  Or,  indeed,  the  artist  has  already  depicted 
sowing  in  this  month.  This  is,  however,  oftener  put  in  October. 
44  October  is  represented  in  pictures,”  says  Corbichon,  44  as  a 
man  throwing  seeds  in  the  soil.”  They  are  peasants,  serious 
and  mournful,  who  with  an  ample  movement  scatter  the  seeds 
of  new  harvests.  Beside  them  is  the  harrow,  drawn  by  oxen 
or  horses,  which  will  throw  the  soil  back  on  the  seeds.  And 
already,  under  the  very  eyes  of  the  labourer,  flocks  of  sparrows 
have  come  to  swoop  down  on  the  field  to  pick  at  them.  Some 
328 


THE  MINIATURES 


of  these  little  pictures,  in  which  one  sees  the  rustic  life  of  former 
days,  remind  one  of  the  worn  peasants,  the  robust  and  peaceful 
landscapes,  the  grave  poetry  of  François  Millet. 

Sometimes  the  acorn  crop  is  put  in  October,  though  or¬ 
dinarily  it  belongs  to  November.  Under  the  vaults  of  the 
groves  of  oak,  golden  in  this  late  autumn,  a  peasant  knocks  off 
the  fruit  of  the  lofty  trees  with  a  long  pole.  He  has  strewn  the 
ground  with  them,  and  his  flock  greedily  feeds  on  them.  “  In 
painting,”  says  Corbichon,  “  this  month  is  represented  as  a 
peasant  who  knocks  the  acorns  from  the  oaks  to  feed  his  pigs.” 
Less  often  the  illuminator  represents  in  November  “  the  death 
of  the  pig  ”  :  a  feast-day  at  the  farm,  when  the  black  puddings 
are  taken  all  hot  from  the  shrivelled  fat,  and  moistened  by  a 
great  quantity  of  cider  or  claret  ;  but  this  picture,  dear  to  our 
forefathers,  was  oftener  reserved  for  December.  “  In  painting, 
December  is  represented  as  a  butcher  who  kills  his  pig  with  a 
blow.”  Sometimes  the  beast  is  roasting  on  the  spit  in  front  of 
the  happy  hearth.  December  may  also  be  represented  by  the 
putting  of  the  bread  into  the  oven,  or  by  the  noisy  trumpeting 
in  the  forest  with  the  dogs  rushing  upon  the  quarry,  under  the 
eyes  of  the  kennel  men,  who  blow  out  their  cheeks  while  sounding 
the  horn. 

From  the  religious  pictures,  so  carefully  illuminated  by  our 
miniaturists,  will  spring  the  great  painting  of  the  Renaissance. 
Often  the  composition  of  such-and-such  a  famous  picture  of 
the  sixteenth  century  is  admired,  the  “  Last  Supper  ”  of  Leonardo 
da  Vinci,  for  example,  or  the  “  Laying  in  the  Tomb  ”  by  Titian  ; 
in  it  the  genius  of  the  artist  is  honoured,  when  it  is  really 
only  the  reproduction  of  the  arrangement  adopted  since  the 
thirteenth  century  and  perfected  from  age  to  age  by  the  humble 
miniaturists  of  olden  times. 

As  for  the  historical  scenes,  they  are  distinguished  by  an 
anachronism  the  more  daring  in  proportion  as  it  is  unconscious. 
Whatever  may  be  the  epoch  represented,  the  Egypt  of  the 
Pharaohs,  or  the  Rome  of  the  Cæsars,  furniture  and  costume 
are  invariably  those  of  the  times  in  which  our  illuminators 
lived.  Sometimes,  with  an  ingenuous  scrupulosity,  the  artist 
puts  on  the  personages  of  antiquity  costumes  a  generation  or 
two  old  ;  as  though  to  represent  the  contemporaries  of  Themis- 

329 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


tocles  or  Romulus  Augustulus,  we  were  to  give  them  the 
fashions  of  the  reign  of  Louis  Philippe  or  of  the  Second  Empire. 
In  our  old  miniatures  Pompey  appears  surrounded  by  cardinals 
dressed  in  long  scarlet  robes  ;  Julius  Cæsar  makes  his  entry  into 
the  Eternal  City  at  the  head  of  a  train  of  artillery,  and  Nero 
holds  forth  in  the  foreground  of  a  screen  on  which  is  represented 
the  Crucifixion.  These  naïvetés  are  comparable  to  those  of  the 
old  Christmas  carols  which  the  soul  of  the  people  created  about 
the  same  period,  in  which  the  Virgin  and  Saint  Joseph  wander 
in  Bethlehem,  from  one  inn  to  another,  from  the  “  Golden 
Lion  ”  to  the  “  Shield  of  France  ”  and  to  the  “  White  Horse,” 
repulsed  from  door  to  door  because  of  their  wretched  appear¬ 
ance,  before  finding  refuge  in  the  stable  where  the  Divine  Child 
is  to  be  born. 

But  let  us  go  back  to  the  workshop  where  our  illuminators, 
men  and  women,  bent  over  the  white  sheets  of  parchment, 
work  with  their  delicate  brushes  at  the  minute  work. 

Though  they  are  grouped  in  the  workshop  under  the  same 
head,  they  are  not  all  equally  skilful  ;  whence  the  differences 
of  execution  observable  among  the  miniatures  of  a  single 
manuscript.  They  have  all  been  carried  out  in  the  same 
workshop,  under  the  same  direction,  but  by  hands  not  equally 
expert. 

We  can  imagine  only  with  difficulty  to-day  the  incredible 
patience  of  these  precise  workers.  In  many  places  they 
needed  six  or  seven  layers  of  the  same  colour  to  obtain  the 
desired  effect. 

In  wet  weather  an  interval  of  eight  or  ten  days,  sometimes 
more,  was  necessary  between  one  layer  and  the  next.  The  use 
of  driers  was  not  known.  Two  months  or  longer  were  necessary 
for  the  purple  of  a  cloak  or  the  green  of  a  wood  ;  but  from  this 
there  came  also  that  intensity  and  depth,  that  precision  of 
colour,  that  unchangeable  purity  and  clarity  which  are  our 
admiration.  As  to  the  circumstances  of  these  delightful 
artists,  they  were  generally  of  the  humblest.  They  were 
labourers  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  just  as  the  sculptors 
were  stone-cutters.  They  traded  with  their  pretty  pictures 
in  the  same  way  as  their  neighbours  sold  candles  or  combs, 
cups  or  hauberks.  In  our  days  we  often  see  carpenters  who 
330 


THE  MINIATURES 


are  at  the  same  time  sellers  of  wine.  In  the  Middle  Ages  it 
was  the  miniaturists  who  joined  their  profession  to  that  of 
innkeepers,  and  doubtless  the  sale  of  claret  and  beer  profited 
them  more  than  that  of  the  little  masterpieces  created  by  their 
brushes. 

Moreover,  our  painters  were  organized  in  corporations,  and 
their  statutes  resemble  those  of  other  trade  guilds. 

44  Article  I. — No  one  shall  be  admitted  to  the  said  trade 
as  master,  nor  can  he  work  in  Paris,  nor  have  an  apprentice, 
until  he  has  made  a  masterpiece  or  a  trial,  and  is  testified  as 
efficient  by  the  jury  of  the  said  trade.” 

Article  V.  advises  the  painter  who  works  on  wooden  panels 
to  choose  only  sheets  of  very  dry  wood  :  moreover,  he  is  not 
authorized  to  begin  his  picture  until  the  sheet  of  wood  has 
been  inspected  by  the  masters  of  the  trade. 

By  these  statutes  of  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  cen¬ 
turies  it  is  seen  that  oil  painting,  on  wood  as  well  as  on 
canvas,  was  practised  in  the  Parisian  workshop  two  centuries 
before  its  discovery  by  the  brothers  van  Eyck. 

44  Article  XV. — Likewise  no  painter,  who  is  making  a  paint¬ 
ing  in  oil  or  distemper,  shall  work  on  canvas  which  is  not 
sufficient  and  strong  enough  to  stand  the  painting;  and  he 
shall  do  nothing  on  tin,  which  is  no  good  either  for  oil  or 
distemper.” 

In  the  time  of  Saint  Louis,  our  artists  were  grouped  in  the 
same  quarter  as  the  other  corporations.  The  illuminators 
nearly  all  chose  to  live  in  the  rue  Eremboux-de-Brie,  corrupted 
now  into  rue  Boutebrie,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Church  of 
St.  Severin.  There  were  found,  side  by  side,  illuminators, 
parchment  makers,  and  booksellers. 

As  to  the  names  of  these  charming  painters,  they  have,  for 
the  most  part,  remained  unknown.  We  have  said  that  they 
considered  themselves  merely  artisans,  and  artisans  do  not 
sign  their  work.  Among  these  comrades  the  earliest  who  has 
left  traces  of  his  name  was  he  who  illustrated,  in  1285,  the 
manuscript  now  preserved  in  the  Bibliothèque  Nationale  under 
the  heading  Manuscrit  français  412.  He  at  least  thought  of 
tracing  on  the  last  leaf  of  the  volume,  if  not  the  name  he 
bore — that  would  have  been,  it  seems,  to  ask  too  much — 

331 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

at  least  his  Christian  name  and  the  date  at  which  he  did 
his  work  : 

The  illuminator  has  Henri  for  name, 

God  keep  him  from  shame. 

This  was  made  in  the  year  m.cc.iiii.xx  et  v  (1285). 

In  a  tax  roll  for  the  year  1292  we  find  two  more  Christian 
names  of  miniaturists  :  the  family  name  is  always  wanting. 
They  are  Nicolas  and  Honoré,  both  qualified  44  heads  of  work¬ 
shops.”  We  meet  this  Honoré  in  1288  in  his  workshop  in 
Paris,  where  he  has  just  finished  a  Decretals  of  Gratian  now 
preserved  in  the  Bibliothèque  de  Tours.  His  workshop  is 
naturally  situated  in  the  rue  Boutebrie  ;  Honoré  works  there 
with  his  daughter  and  his  son-in-law,  Richard  of  Verdun,  who 
design  and  paint  under  his  direction. 

Honoré  appears  to  have  been  a  person  of  importance  among 
his  colleagues.  He  is  the  one  who  pays  the  highest  tax  of  all. 
He  was  employed  by  King  Philip  the  Fair  ;  and  made  for  him, 
in  1296,  the  beautiful  Psalter  which  is  preserved  in  the  Biblio¬ 
thèque  Nationale  under  the  quotation  MS.  latin  1023. 

Perhaps  Honoré  should  be  considered  the  master  of  Jean 
Pucelle,  the  artist  who  is  placed  in  the  first  rank  of  the  minia¬ 
turists  previous  to  the  brilliant  school  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
with  men  like  Pol  de  Limbourg  and  Jean  Foucquet.  Pucelle 
and  his  pupils  can  claim  the  honour  of  having  inaugurated  in 
the  decoration  of  manuscripts  the  direct  and  faithful  copy  of 
Nature.  See  in  the  margins  of  their  beautiful  books,  or  in  the 
boughs  with  which  they  decorate  their  great  capital  letters, 
those  various  birds,  familiar  denizens  of  our  farms  and  woods, 
roguish  blackbirds  or  pheasants  with  their  red-brown  plumage, 
plump  bullfinches,  and  goldfinches  with  their  red  hoods.  See, 
at  the  bottom  of  the  page,  this  swift  hare  which  jumps  across 
the  ferns  to  the  barking  of  the  dog  which  chases  it.  Above 
flutter  butterflies  and  dragonflies.  Nature  is  reproduced  here 
from  life,  with  the  exception  of  the  trees,  still  always  presented 
in  masses  of  44  anonymous  ”  foliage,  if  one  may  use  the  ex¬ 
pression.  We  must  wait  for  the  painters  of  the  Flemish 
generation,  those  of  the  fifteenth  century,  to  get  the  variety  of 
trees  represented  in  their  individuality. 

332 


THE  MINIATURES 


Honoré  and  Jean  Pucelle  were  Parisians,  as  were  also  those 
other  painters  of  a  delicious  grace,  Jean  Chevrier,  Anciau  de 
Cens,  Jaquet  Maci  ;  these  are  they  whom  Dante  declared  the 
masters  of  their  art. 

Several  works  of  Jean  Pucelle  are  preserved.  A  hundred 
years  after  the  death  of  this  clever  artist  his  name  was  not 
forgotten  ;  which  is  surprising  at  a  period  when,  as  we  have 
pointed  out,  the  idea  of  the  qualities  which  make  an  artist 
was  not  yet  formed.  A  hundred  years  after  the  death  of  the 
painter,  people  still  spoke  in  praise  of  “A  little  Hours  of  Our 
Lady,  called  the  Heures  de  Pucelle ,  illuminated  in  black  and 
white,  for  the  use  of  preachers.”  This  delightful  volume, 
commissioned  by  Charles  the  Fair  for  his  third  wife,  Jeanne 
d’Evreux,  enriched  by  the  master  with  exquisite  cameos  and 
completed  in  1327,  is  now  the  property  of  the  Baroness  Adolphe 
de  Rothschild.  To  Pucelle  we  owe  also  the  Breviary  of  Belle¬ 
ville  (Bibliothèque  Nationale  MS.  latin  10483)  and  the  Bible 
written  by  Robert  of  Billyng  (Bibliothèque  Nationale  MS. 
latin  11935). 

These  are  doubtless  the  most  characteristic  works  produced 
by  the  miniaturists  ;  for  the  wonderful  pictures  on  parchment 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  those  of  Foucquet,  of  the  brothers 
Male-wel  (Pol,  Hermann,  and  Jannequin  of  Limbourg),  those  of 
Bourdichon,  no  longer  know  the  art  of  ornamenting  the  margins, 
the  letters,  the  pages  of  a  book  ;  they  are  little  pictures  which 
are  not  of  the  body  of  the  volume  and  can  be  detached  from  it  : 
a  thing  which  has  in  fact  happened  to  a  great  number  of 
Foucquet’s  miniatures. 

Moreover,  Pucelle  and  his  companions  dominated  the  art 
of  decorating  books  from  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century 
to  the  end  of  the  fourteenth.  We  have  said  that  the  reign  of 
Philip  Augustus  had  corresponded  in  the  history  of  the  minia¬ 
ture  with  the  period  of  stained  glass  ;  the  reign  of  Philip  the 
Fair  saw  the  beginnings  of  the  decorative  period  which  is  to 
flourish  up  to  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century.  But  the 
painters  who  will  work  for  Charles  V,  those  even  who  are  to 
illustrate  the  manuscripts  commissioned  by  his  brother  Duke 
Jean  de  Berry,  not  excepting  Jacquemart  de  Hesdin  himself, 
will  descend  from  John  Pucelle,  the  continuator,  if  not  the 

333 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


pupil,  of  the  miniaturist  Honoré.  For  a  century  or  more,  it 
will  seem  impossible,  we  do  not  say  only  to  do  better,  but 
even  to  do  differently. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century,  a  number 
of  painters  from  the  North  and  East,  Flemings,  Limbourgians, 
Burgundians,  come  to  settle  in  Paris.  There  are  the  workshops 
of  repute  ;  there  live  or  sojourn  the  princes,  the  44  rich  men,” 
those  who  give  useful  commissions.  In  the  fourteenth  century 
there  are  thus  seen  coming  to  Paris  Peter  of  Brussels  and  John 
of  Ghent.  They  learn  there  the  principles  of  their  art  in  the 
workshops  of  the  rue  Boutebrie  ;  up  to  the  time  when,  having 
become  artists  by  their  feeling  so  rich  and  full  of  savour  for 
real  life,  they  give  the  impulse  to  the  great  Flemish  art  of  the 
fifteenth  century. 

While  the  Parisian  miniaturists  carried  their  art  to  perfec¬ 
tion  the  Italians  developed  mural  paintings,  frescoes.  We 
have  seen  how  in  France  the  tendencies  of  the  Gothic  style 
avoided,  more  and  more,  walls  in  order  to  obtain  buildings 
more  and  more  open  to  the  day,  screens  pierced  with  immense 
bays  in  which  the  coloured  light  of  the  stained-glass  windows 
was  like  a  song.  Painting  no  longer  found  space  on  the  walls 
of  the  churches  ;  while  in  Italy  it  assumed  magnificent  propor¬ 
tions  under  the  brushes  of  the  Giottos  and  the  Cimabues.  More¬ 
over,  the  French  of  the  Renaissance,  drawing  their  art  from 
the  painting  of  the  manuscripts,  will  do  44  small  painting,”  at 
least  as  regards  their  delicate  and  minute  character  and  their 
processes.  They  will  be  men  like  Foucquet,  Jean  Perréal, 
François  Clouet,  Corneille  de  Lyon,  up  to  the  invasion  by  the 
Italians,  under  Francis  I,  with  the  Primitives  and  the  School 
of  Fontainebleau  ;  while,  from  the  fourteenth  century,  and  up 
to  the  blossoming  of  the  Renaissance,  the  Italians  will  give 
themselves  to  that  which  one  may  agree  to  call — if  it  is  a 
question  of  dimensions — great  painting. 

Sources. — Theophilus,  Schedula  diver sarum  artium,  ed.  L’Escalopier, 
1843  ;  Jean  le  Besgue,  Bibl.  Nat.  MS.  lat.  6741  ;  Bartholomew  de  Glan- 
ville,  De  proprietatibus  rerum ,  translated  by  Jehan  Corbichon,  Le  pro¬ 
prietaire  des  choses,  Lyons,  undated  ;  Les  métiers  et  corporations  de  la  ville 
de  Paris,  ed.  R.  de  Lespinasse,  1896-97,  3  vols. 

Historical  Works. — Emerie  David,  Histoire  de  la  peinture  au  Moyen 
334 


THE  MINIATURES 


Age ,  new  ed.,  1863  ;  Paul  Mantz,  La  Peinture  française  du  IXe  à  la  fin  du 
XVIe  Siècle ,  1897  ;  Lecoy  de  la  Marche,  Les  Manuscrits  et  la  Miniature , 
undated  ;  J.  H.  Middleton,  Illuminated  Manuscripts  in  Classical  and 
Mediaeval  Times ,  Cambridge,  1892  ;  Henry  Martin,  Les  miniaturistes 
français ,  1906  ;  Henry  Martin,  Les  Peintres  de  mss  et  la  miniature  en 
France ,  undated.  We  have  drawn  especially  on  these  last  two  volumes. 


335 


CHAPTER  XVI 


TOWN  ASSOCIATIONS  AND  TRADE  ASSOCIATIONS 

Trade  corporations  have  their  origin  in  the  family.  Hanses  and 
Guilds.  The  Brotherhood  of  Valenciennes.  The  Eschevinages. 

The  Patricians  and  the  Commune.  The  Corporations.  Etienne 
Boileau’s  Book  of  Trades.  Strikes. 

WE  have  just  seen  that  the  miniaturists  were  organized 
in  trade  associations. 

These  trade  societies,  which  played  so  great  a 
part  in  the  history  of  feudal  France,  and  whose  statutes 
were  put  into  writing  during  the  reign  of  Saint  Louis,  do 
Origin  of  not  g°  back  to  a  very  remote  date.  The  oldest 
the  Trade  dated  only  from  the  second  half  of  the  twelfth 
Associations,  century. 

The  corporations  of  artisans  in  the  Middle  Ages  had  their 
origin  in  the  feudal  lordship.  Like  all  the  institutions  of  the 
period,  they  sprang  from  the  organization  of  the  family. 

We  have  seen  the  lord  maintaining  in  his  castle  domestic 
artisans.  Some  castles  prospered  and  became  towns,  in  which 
the  artisans  became  numerous  in  course  of  time.  They  were 
grouped  into  associations  :  such  as  the  confraternity  of  St. 
Euchère,  founded  at  St.  Trond  between  1034  and  1055.  It  is 
not  yet  a  trade  society  ;  it  is  the  artisans  of  a  household  who 
are  grouped  together  regardless  of  their  trade.  They  are 
associations  of  mutual  help  with  subscriptions,  called  “  frater¬ 
nities.”  They  have  corporate  property,  an  administration,  and 
a  dean  ( decanus ).  We  have  seen  the  towns  formed  by  the 
agglomeration  of  a  certain  number  of  lordships.  Each  of 
these  lordships  had  its  domestic  artisans.  The  towns  grew 
and  prospered,  and  one  saw  the  artisans  of  different  households 
joining  together  to  make  their  work  easy  and  render  it  perfect. 
These  artisans,  grouped  into  associations  of  peace,  of  mutual 

336 


TOWN  AND  TRADE  ASSOCIATIONS 


help,  of  technical  perfection,  soon  worked  no  longer  for  their 
master  only,  but  for  the  customer  who  approached  them.  To 
their  master,  who  remains  their  lord,  they  continue  to  render 
payments  in  kind  or  in  manual  work,  dues,  and  services,  but 
their  workshop,  which  becomes  at  the  same  time  their  shop,  is 
open  to  all  comers.  From  the  court  of  the  castle  or  monastery, 
the  artisans  spread  beyond  into  the  town  and  suburbs,  where 
they  group  themselves  no  longer  as  the  artisans  of  the  same 
lordship  but  as  of  the  same  trade.  The  corporation  is  formed. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  urban  lords  have  become  traders. 
The  very  rôle  of  protector  or  patron  which  the  urban  lord  has 
to  fill  with  regard  to  the  working  part  of  his  household,  leads 
him  to  occupy  himself  with  the  distribution  of  the  articles 
which  it  manufactures,  with  the  provision  of  materials  required 
for  its  work  ;  and  he  will  do  it  the  more  energetically  as  he 
makes  a  profit  by  it.  Thus  is  formed  the  urban  patrician  class, 
feudal  in  character  like  the  rural  patricians  or  feudal  nobles 
properly  so  called.  It  is  formed  by  a  parallel  movement  with 
the  working  class  :  it  has  grown  and  prospered  with  and 
through  it.  A  fact  which  scholars  have  remarked  in  the  early 
part  of  the  Middle  Ages  is  thus  explained,  that  the  artisan 
first  appears  as  a  mere  workman,  using  the  materials  furnished 
by  his  client.  The  weavers  manufacture  cloth  with  the  wool 
which  the  wool  drapers  send  them.  In  their  respective  trades, 
tailors,  carpenters,  and  shoemakers  do  the  same.  And  this  is 
not  astonishing  when  one  remembers  that  in  the  beginning 
these  artisans  were  “  domestics.” 

But  here  are  the  Patricians  also  forming  associations  like 
the  artisans.  The  hanses  and  guilds  grouped  the  trading 

patricians,  the  heads  of  the  city,  while  the  cor¬ 
porations  united  the  artisans.  They  were  associa¬ 
tions  resembling  each  other  in  many  ways,  and 
in  the  beginning  called  by  the  same  name,  brotherhoods 
(frairies),  fraternities. 

The  seigniorial  associations — by  which  we  mean  the  patrician 
groups — are  earlier  in  date  than  the  associations  of  workmen. 
That  is  self-evident.  These  lords,  growing  rich  on  the  work 
of  their  households,  had  the  idea  of  forming  associations  to 
extend  their  enterprises,  long  before  it  was  possible  for  the 

y  337 


Hanses  and 
Guilds. 


Ï HE  MIDDLE  AGES 


artisans  to  group  themselves  in  their  turn.  We  have  just  seen 
that  the  oldest  known  groups  of  artisans  go  back  to  the  second 
half  of  the  twelfth  century.  Patrician  associations,  such  as 
the  Fraternity  of  Valenciennes,  are  known  from  the  beginning 
of  the  twelfth  century.  This  word  alone,  frairie  (brotherhood), 
indicates  the  spirit  of  this  association  of  merchants. 

Take  their  charter,  of  which  the  following  is  the  preamble  : 

44  Brothers,  we  are  images  of  God,  for  it  says  in  Genesis  : 

4  Let  us  make  man  to  our  image  and  likeness.’  We  are  united 
in  this  idea,  and  we  shall,  with  the  help  of  God,  be  able  to 
accomplish  our  work  if  brotherly  love  is  spread  among  us  ;  for 
through  the  love  of  our  neighbour  we  attain  to  the  love  of  God. 
Then,  brothers,  let  not  any  discord  be  among  us,  according 
to  the  words  of  the  Gospel  :  4 1  give  you  a  new  commandment. 
Love  one  another,  as  I  have  loved  you,  and  I  shall  know  that 
you  are  my  disciples  because  you  love  one  another.’  ” 

Several  of  the  articles  of  the  ordinance  reveal  the  state  of 
disorder  into  which  the  country  was  yet  plunged.  44  If  one 
of  the  brothers,  i.e.  one  of  the  members  of  the  corporation, 
go  to  the  market  without  arms  ” — we  must  understand  this 
to  mean  without  his  coat  of  mail  and  his  bow — he  is  condemned, 
to  the  profit  of  the  society,  to  a  fine  of  twelve  pennies.  This 
military  character  of  our  merchants,  the  result  of  their  feudal 
origin,  will  persist  through  long  years.  In  the  twelfth  century, 
Jehan  le  Galois  d’Aubepierre,  in  his  fable  of  the  Pursefull  of 
Sense,  will  still  speak  of  a  merchant,  the  lord  Reniers,  who 
returns  from  the  market  at  Troy,  after  accidents  which  have 
reduced  him  to  a  wretched  condition.  Behold  him 

As  badly  dressed  as  a  highwayman 
On  foot,  without  shield  or  lance.  .  .  . 

M.  Jourdain,  in  the  thirteenth  century,  was  clad  in  iron, 
like  a  knight. 

But  let  us  return  to  the  Fraternity  of  Valenciennes. 

The  Brothers  are  not  allowed  to  leave  the  town  except 
several  together,  so  that  they  may  assist  one  another,  under 
any  circumstance,  with  advice,  purse,  and  sword.  A  Brother 
is,  for  instance,  obliged  to  contribute,  in  case  of  need,  to  the 

ransom  of  his  comrade  or  his  merchandise,  if  they  have  been 
338 


TOWN  AND  TRADE  ASSOCIATIONS 


captured.  If  the  carriage  of  a  Brother  is  broken  through 
coming  across  an  obstacle,  or  if  his  horses  fall  from  accident 
or  fatigue,  his  comrade  is  obliged  to  assist  him  according  to  his 
ability.  If  one  of  the  comrades  has  finished  his  business  in  a 
place,  he  ought,  none  the  less,  prolong  his  sojourn  for  twenty- 
four  hours,  in  company  with  a  Brother  who  shall  ask  him  to 
do  so.  If  it  happened  that  a  member  of  the  society  so  far 
forgot  himself  as  to  strike  or  injure  another  member,  he  was 
condemned  to  a  fine  or  even  dismissed  from  the  Fraternity. 
No  one  was  admitted  into  the  44  Charity  ” — another  designation 
used  to  describe  the  Society — if  he  had  a  feeling  of  hatred 
against  one  of  the  members.  The  fines  were  paid,  sometimes 
in  money,  sometimes  in  hogsheads  of  wine,  for  the  Brothers 
of  Valenciennes  were  liberal  drinkers.  The  most  curious 
articles  of  the  charter  are  even  devoted  to  the  gatherings  in 
which  the  Brothers  of  the  Exchange — the  Exchange  of  commerce 
— met  together  for  the  purpose  of  drinking.  Let  us  picture 
to  ourselves  these  merchants  of  the  eleventh  century  seated 
round  great  tables  of  rough  wood  in  the  premises  of  the 
Fraternity.  Each  has  before  him  a  large  pot  of  wine.  44  On 
the  day  when  the  Brothers  drink  together,”  says  Article  IV, 
44  they  will  give  wine  to  the  poor,  in  quantity  equal  to  one- 
tenth  of  what  they  themselves  shall  have  drunk.”  No  one 
shall  have  arms,  or  bring  young  men  or  children,  44  so  that  the 
Brothers  may  be  together  in  peace  and  holy  religion  without 
disturbance.”  We  must  not  be  shocked  by  the  word  44  religion  ” 
applied  to  the  libations  of  these  merchants  :  the  meeting  was 
opened  with  prayers,  and  a  very  serious  deportment  was  de 
rigueur.  44  When  the  Brothers  drink  together  no  one  must  go 
in  or  out  singing  ;  each  Brother  should  speak  only  to  the  one 
sitting  next  him,  and  if  he  speak  to  another  he  must  pay  a 
fine  of  four  pennies.” 

If  a  Brother  comes  to  die,  his  comrades  watch  the  body 
during  the  night,  and  if  he  has  wished  to  be  buried  outside 
the  town  they  accompany  the  bier  during  three  days  and  three 
nights. 

Some  articles,  added  to  the  charter,  enable  us  to  judge  of 
the  prosperity  which  the  Fraternity  will  have  reached  a  century 
later. 


389 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


The  charters  of  Valenciennes  are  not  the  only  ones  of  this 
time  which  have  come  down  to  us.  Several  others  have  been 
preserved,  notably  those  of  St.  Orner  and  those  of  Tournai. 

For  many  years  these  patricians  remained  closely  united 
with  the  artisans  who  composed  their  households  and  whose 

work  they  directed,  protected,  and  encouraged. 
Eschevina^es.  was  their  support  that  they  carried 

through  the  communal  revolution  of  which  we  have  spoken, 
and  after  having  crushed  or  diminished  the  authority  of  the 
principal  suzerain  of  the  town,  duke  or  count,  bishop  or  abbot, 
they  formed  the  eschevinages  or  municipal  governments. 
They  were  governments  which  kept,  in  the  beginning,  their 
feudal  character  :  the  échevins  (sheriffs)  are  above  all  judges 
and  soldiers. 

These  échevins ,  who  do  not  appear  before  the  end  of  the 
eleventh  century,  are  at  this  period  the  representatives  of  the 
patrician  families  ;  they  are  the  heads  of  these  families.  By 
forming  a  group  they  become  the  government  of  the  city.  The 
communal  revolution  freed  the  patrician  families  from  the 
immediate  authority  exercised  by  the  principal  lord.  They 
deprived  him  especially  of  his  right  of  administering  justice. 
But  from  this  day,  too,  these  various  families  entered  into  a 
struggle  against  one  another.  Intestine  quarrels  became  the 
scourge  of  the  mediaeval  towns  in  the  period  following  the 
communal  revolution.  There  is  no  patrician  family  which, 
relying  on  its  household  of  artisans  and  labourers,  does  not  aim 
at  predominance  in  the  city  and  is  not  jealous  of  rival  families. 
Previously  the  lord  had  put  a  vigorous  curb  on  these  struggles. 
He  is  no  longer  there,  or  at  least  he  has  lost  the  greater  part  of 
his  power.  Hence  the  necessity  to  guard,  by  means  of  an 
organization  of  entire  peace  and  fraternity,  against  conflicts 
which  threatened  to  recur  constantly.  Such  was  the  origin  of 
those  first  urban  organizations  of  which  we  have  just  spoken, 
of  the  fraternity  guilds  and  hanses,  which  are  to  become  the 
municipal  organization  itself.  Moreover,  like  the  hanses  and 
the  merchant  organizations  the  urban  organizations  are  called 
“  associations  of  peace.”  They  replace  the  action  of  the 
feudal  lord  of  which  they  have  been  deprived.  These  guilds 
of  merchants  occupy  themselves  with  the  repair  and  improve- 
340 


TOWN  AND  TRADE  ASSOCIATIONS 


ment  of  the  fortifications  of  the  town,  with  putting  a  guard 
in  the  watch  tower  and  supporting  a  watchman. 

Hoc  est  carta  jpacis  et  concordie  et  consulatus — This  is  the 
charter  of  the  peace  of  concord  and  the  consulate  (Eschevin- 
age) — we  read  in  the  municipal  charter  of  Avignon. 

Moreover,  the  eschevinage  is  sometimes  identical  with  the 
guild  itself.  In  some  towns  only  the  members  of  the  guild 
or  the  hanse  can  belong  to  it. 

At  first,  in  the  twelfth  century,  the  authority  of  the 
Magistrat  (the  municipal  corporation),  like  that  of  the  feudal 
lord,  is  exclusively  judicial  and  military.  Later  the  èchevins 
unite  with  these  financial  activities.  We  must,  too,  distinguish 
carefully  between  the  eschevinages  founded  before  the  middle 
of  the  twelfth  century  and  those  created  later.  The  first  are 
essentially  feudal  organs.  After  1150,  with  the  development 
of  the  commercial  movement,  appear  economic  preoccupations. 

From  the  Magistrat — as  the  eschevinal  college  is  called — 
the  people  of  the  artisan  class,  those  who  work  with  their  hands, 
the  men  44  with  blue  nails,”  are  excluded.  The  people  are 
equally  excluded  who  hawk  through  the  town  edible  com¬ 
modities  or  articles  of  clothing,  small  dealers  with  baskets, 
those  who  pursue  small  trade  within  a  small  space. 

The  èchevins ,  called  in  many  towns  44  the  peers  ”  (pairs),  are 
recruited  by  the  method  of  co-optation.  There  is  no  question 
of  popular  election.  At  Rouen  the  name  of  44  peers  ”  was 
given  to  the  members  of  a  college  of  a  hundred  patricians 
who  chose  the  èchevins.  The  consuls  of  Narbonne  themselves 
nominated  their  successors.  At  Poitiers,  the  town  corporation 
is  formed  by  the  Confraternity  of  St.  Hilary,  an  association  of 
a  hundred  members,  the  Patriciate. 

At  first,  and  up  to  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century,  the 
eschevinages  had  no  place  specially  devoted  to  their  meetings. 
Their  gatherings  generally  took  place  in  the  hall  of  the 
merchants,  or  in  the  room  in  which  the  merchant  guild  dis¬ 
cusses  its  affairs.  To  administer  justice  our  èchevins  sit  in  the 
open  air.  Saint  Louis,  in  the  shade  of  the  oaks  of  Vincennes, 
or  on  the  lawns  of  the  Jardin  de  Paris,  was  not  making 
any  innovation.  To  administer  justice  the  èchevins  establish 
themselves  in  the  middle  of  cross-roads  or  in  the  square  before 

341 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


the  church.  But  their  deliberations  on  matters  of  communal 
interest,  which  were  the  same,  in  their  estimation,  as  the 
commercial  interests  of  their  guild,  are  carried  on  behind 
closed  doors.  At  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  peers  of 
Senlis  condemn  to  a  fine  a  burgess  who  had  boasted  that  he 
knew  what  passed  at  their  meetings. 

This  anecdote  indicates  the  division  which  had  been  pro¬ 
duced  between  the  Patricians  and  the  People.  After  having 
made  use  of  the  artisans  and  the  agricultural  workers  of  their 
households,  to  deliver  themselves  from  the  seigniorial  authority, 
the  patricians  organized  in  communes,  gave  a  great  impulse  to 
their  industrial  or  commercial  enterprises,  and  set  themselves 
to  exploit  their  subordinates,  by  extracting  from  them  the 
greater  part  of  the  profits  which  might  result  from  them.  The 
towns  became  divided  into  two  classes — the  patricians  on  one 
side,  composed  of  those  whom  the  Latin  texts  describe  under 
the  name  majores ,  and  on  the  other  the  popular  class,  com¬ 
posed  of  those  described  in  the  Latin  texts  as  minores ,  the 
working  class,  as  we  should  say  now. 

The  terms  of  the  charters  which  exclude  the  workers  from 
the  magistracy  ( Magistrat )  indicate  the  scorn  professed  for 
them  by  the  patricians.  Look  at  the  charter  of  Damme  (1241) 
which  rejects  from  the  eschevinage,  in  terms  far  from  flattering 
to  the  artisans,  “  robbers,  coiners,  and  those  who  have  not 
refrained  from  all  manual  work  for  a  year  and  have  not  acquired 
the  hanse  of  London,”  i.e.  have  not  become  members,  by  pay¬ 
ing  a  large  sum,  of  the  patrician  guild. 

In  the  towns  in  which  admission  to  the  Magistrat  was  not 
forbidden  by  a  formal  text,  it  was  actually  made  impossible 
for  them.  Beaumanoir  explains  this  with  his  usual  precision  : 
“  We  see  several  good  towns  in  which  neither  the  poor  nor  the 
middle  class  have  any  part  in  the  administration  of  the  town, 
as  have  all  the  rich  because  they  are  feared  by  the  commune 
on  account  of  their  wealth  or  their  lineage.  So  it  comes  about 
that  some  are  dean,  mayor,  or  sworn  members  or  recheveurs , 
and  the  next  year  they  create  them  from  their  brothers,  their 
nephews,  or  their  near  relatives,  so  that  in  ten  or  twelve  years 
all  the  rich  people  have  their  part  in  the  administration  of  the 
good  towns.  ...” 

342 


TOWN  AND  TRADE  ASSOCIATIONS 


The  customs,  which  the  patricians,  at  the  head  of  the 
eschevinage,  had  imposed  on  the  large  towns,  were  even  in¬ 
jurious  to  the  honour  of  the  working  people.  There  were  cir¬ 
cumstances  in  which  a  patrician  could,  with  impunity,  strike 
an  artisan.  An  insult  was  punished  by  a  fine  heavier  in  pro¬ 
portion  as  it  was  addressed  to  a  man  in  a  high  position.  In 
certain  towns  the  abduction  of  a  maiden  of  the  patrician  class 
was  punished  by  a  very  heavy  fine  ;  while  a  girl  of  the  people 
could  be  kidnapped  with  impunity. 

Thus,  not  finding  in  their  patrons  the  protectors  under 
whom  their  industry  had  taken  its  rise,  the  artisans  came  to 

_  organize  themselves  in  trade  societies.  We  have 

The  Trade  • 

Societies  said  that  corPorati°ns  °f  workmen  in¬ 

cluded  all  the  artisans  of  the  same  household, 
without  distinction  of  trade  ;  they  were,  at  first,  only  associa¬ 
tions  of  protection  and  mutual  assistance.  But  soon  the 
organization  became  specialized,  and  the  different  corporations 
each  included  the  artisans  of  a  particular  trade.  There  were 
formed  corporations  of  weavers,  of  fullers,  of  butchers,  of 
carpenters,  of  stone-cutters  .  .  .  and  for  some  time  yet  they 
were  only  associations  for  mutual  protection  ;  but  which  trans¬ 
formed  themselves  insensibly  into  technical  associations  for 
the  perfectioning  of  the  craft  and  the  maintenance  of  the 
manufacturing  traditions  which  had  been  developed.  They 
became  professional  corporations. 

We  have  a  great  deal  of  information  about  the  trade  societies 
of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  and  these  have  given 
rise  to  numerous  studies.  The  corporations  of  Paris  are 
familiar  to  us  through  an  admirable  work,  the  Book  of  Trades 
by  Etienne  Boileau,  drawn  up  in  the  reign  of  Saint  Louis 
through  the  industry  of  the  famous  Provost  of  Paris  who  bore 
this  name. 

Etienne  Boileau  collected  the  statutes  of  the  corporations 
of  Paris  in  order  to  fix  the  customs  of  the  workers  for  fear 
they  should  come  to  be  changed.  It  is  unnecessary  to  add 
that  the  Provost  introduced  nothing  into  them  on  his  personal 
initiative.  He  has  simply  left  us  a  compilation  of  the  uses  and 
customs  which  the  various  trades  of  Paris  had  spontaneously 
imposed  on  themselves  since  the  twelfth  century.  Etienne 

343 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

Boileau  wrote  from  the  dictation  of  members  of  the 
crafts. 

In  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century  Jean  de  Garlande 
occupied  himself  with  the  subject  of  industry  in  Paris.  We 
owe  to  him  a  list  of  the  merchants  and  manufacturers,  as  well 
as  of  the  principal  articles  exposed  in  their  44  shops  ”  ;  but 
the  trade  associations  were  not  yet  formed.  On  the  contrary, 
here  they  are  constituted  during  the  reign  of  Saint  Louis,  and 
how  perfectly  !  How  one  realizes,  in  listening  to  the  deposi¬ 
tions  before  Etienne  Boileau  of  these  dyers  and  weavers,  these 
fullers  and  makers  of  saddles,  these  brewers  of  beer  and  huck¬ 
sters,  the  great  part  which  this  population  of  workmen  played 
in  history,  and  the  perfection  in  which  it  kept,  for  so  many 
centuries,  the  products  of  its  labour. 

The  dominant  preoccupation,  common  to  the  statutes  of 
the  most  diverse  corporations,  is  to  assure  the  fairness  of  the 
manufacture  and  the  excellence  of  the  merchandise  sold.  In 
the  introduction  placed  at  the  head  of  the  collection  the  Provost 
declares  that  he  had  gathered  together  this  body  of  customs 
because  it  happened  that  there  had  been  sold  to  foreigners 
{as  estranges )  44  some  things  which  were  not  as  good  and  honest 
as  they  should  have  been.” 

In  the  first,  to  be  admitted  master  the  apprentice  should 
give  proof  before  the  committee  of  the  corporation  of  the 
knowledge  and  skill  required.  The  workers  in  silk  express 
themselves  as  follows  :  44  Whoever  wishes  to  pursue  the  said 
trade  as  a  master,  it  will  be  necessary  for  him  to  know  how  to 
do  all  the  processes  himself,  without  advice  or  help  from  any 
one  else,  and  he  shall  for  this  purpose  be  examined  by  the 
guardians  of  the  craft.”  There  is  no  question  yet  at  this 
period  of  the  masterpiece  unless  it  is  in  the  statutes  of  the 
makers  of  saddles. 

Then  the  committee  exercised  the  strictest  watch  to  ensure 
the  use  of  primary  materials  which  were  beyond  reproach. 
A  number  of  crafts  prescribed  working  on  the  street  front, 
i.e.  in  a  workshop  giving  on  the  road,  in  sight  of  the  passers-by. 
The  statutes  of  the  saddlers  only  authorize  the  entire  com¬ 
pletion  of  a  saddle  when  it  is  to  be  sold  so  that  the  client  may 

see  the  solidity  of  the  work,  before  the  ornamentation  is  pro- 
844 


TOWN  AND  TRADE  ASSOCIATIONS 


ceeded  with,  the  painting  and  varnishing  which  could  hide 
defects.  The  same  rule  occurs  in  other  trades  ;  with  the  makers 
of  images,  for  instance,  who  are  bound  to  show  their  statue 
in  a  single  block  before  it  is  covered  with  colours.  A  second 
piece  would  be  authorized  for  the  crown  of  the  Virgin  or  saints. 

We  read  in  the  statutes  of  the  cooks  : 

44  No  one  should  cook  geese,  beef,  or  mutton  if  these  meats 
are  not  of  good  quality  and  with  good  marrow.  No  one  should 
keep  for  longer  than  three  days  cooked  meats  which  are  not 
salted.  Sausages  must  not  be  made  except  from  good  pork.” 
As  to  puddings  made  with  blood,  their  sale  is  prohibited,  as 
they  are  44  dangerous  food.” 

Edible  commodities  found  to  be  bad  in  the  shops  are  con¬ 
demned  to  be  burnt,  i.e.  to  be  thrown  into  the  fire,  and  a  fine 
is  inflicted  on  the  seller.  The  makers  of  tallow  candles  declare 
in  this  connection  in  touching  terms  :  44  For  the  false  manu¬ 
facture  of  tallow  candles  is  too  harmful  to  poor  and  rich  and 
too  shameful.”  The  goldsmiths  demand  that  the  gold  used 
shall  be  of  the  standard  of  Paris,  adding  proudly  that,  44  Paris 
gold  surpasses  all  the  golds  of  the  world.” 

Next  to  the  quality  of  the  manufacture,  that  which  the 
statutes  of  the  corporations  seek  to  safeguard  most  carefully 
is  the  place  in  the  sun  of  every  industrious  and  honest  workman. 
It  did  not  seem  just  to  our  forefathers  that  a  manufacturer, 
because  he  was  more  skilful  or  more  fortunate  or  more  far- 
seeing  than  his  neighbour,  should  have  the  right  to  expand 
unduly  in  stifling  and  destroying  him.  Here  is  the  energetic 
defence  of  the  interests  of  small  and  moderate  businesses,  the 
protection  of  the  humble  against  being  crushed  by  the  great 
workshops.  A  master  was  not  authorized  to  direct  several 
workshops,  or,  in  his  own,  to  employ  more  than  a  fixed  number 
of  apprentices.  The  rules  provided  that  an  article  should  be 
made  and  sold  by  the  same  master,  and  further,  he  was  forbidden 
to  have  a  stall  and  a  hawker  at  the  same  time.  If  he  kept  a 
hawker  he  could  have  one  only,  and  some  trades  went  so  far 
as  to  require  that  this  hawker  should  be  no  other  than  the 
master  himself,  or  his  wife. 

It  was  forbidden  to  corrupt  the  44  valets,”  that  is  to  say, 
the  workers  ;  forbidden  even  to  entice  by  tricks  of  advertisement 

345 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


the  clients  of  one’s  neighbour  ;  forbidden  to  the  weavers, 
dyers,  and  fullers  to  plot  together  to  influence  the  price  of  raw 
materials,  or  to  monopolize  supplies  and  prevent  every  one 
having  work  according  to  their  means. 

In  some  towns  the  rules  go  even  further.  44  If  some  one,” 
says  one  of  them,  “  has  made  a  purchase  at  Montpelier,  and 
an  inhabitant  of  Montpelier  was  present  at  the  sale,  he  has 
the  right  to  take  a  part  of  the  purchase,  and  the  seller  is  bound 
to  deliver  a  part  of  it  to  him.  Only  in  cases  when  the  purchaser 
has  made  a  purchase  for  his  own  personal  use  or  for  that  of 
his  family  shall  he  not  be  bound  to  give  up  a  part  of  it.” 

It  was  forbidden  for  several  merchants  to  join  together 
to  ruin  a  competitor,  or  to  come  to  an  understanding  together 
so  as  to  sell  articles  at  a  lower  price.  These  manœuvres, 
which  lead  nowadays  to  44  trusts,”  were  stigmatized  under  the 
name  of  44  alliances.” 

Salesmen,  say  the  rules,  should  not  buy  of  any  merchants 
freights  or  cargoes  of  eggs  or  cheeses  to  be  delivered  in  a  future 
journey  or  at  any  deferred  period.  It  wras  the  destruction 
of  sale  on  account,  beginning  with  speculation  in  merchandise. 
And  these  rules  of  the  thirteenth  century  justify  their  pre¬ 
scription  with  the  same  amazing  clear-sightedness.  44  For  the 
rich  merchants  would  monopolize  all  the  edibles  and  the  poorer 
could  not  reserve  anything  for  themselves,  and  the  rich  could 
sell  all  again  as  dearly  as  they  pleased.” 

And  the  trades  were  not  only  careful  to  raise  a  barrier 
against  the  subjection  of  the  workshops  by  the  big  manu¬ 
factories,  but  above  all  to  put  an  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the 
harm  which  speculation  works  on  productive  labour.  The 
solidity  and  stability  of  industrial  labour  being  thus  guaranteed, 
the  artisans  were  anxious  to  secure  its  transmission  in  the 
bosom  of  each  family.  Some  trade  associations  have  strict 
rules  to  attain  this  end.  44  No  one  ought  to  have  the  trade  of 
a  weaver,”  say  the  weavers,  44  unless  he  is  the  son  of  a  master. 
It  is  true  that  in  Paris,  as  in  Flanders,  the  weavers  formed  a 
fraternity  proud  of  its  power,  a  kind  of  aristocratic  trade  among 
the  others.  In  all  the  corporations  the  sons  and  relatives  of 
masters  were  favoured,  if  only  by  the  free  gift  of  apprenticeship 
and  right  to  become  a  roaster.  Moreover,  a  master  could  not 
346 


TOWN  AND  TRADE  ASSOCIATIONS 


have  in  his  workshop  more  than  one  44  strange  ”  apprentice  ; 
the  others,  children  or  relatives,  were  the  private  apprentices. 

Our  artisans  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  had 
fully  realized  the  importance  of  apprenticeship.  The  book  of 
Etienne  Boileau  treats  of  it  with  the  greatest  care.  It  has 
been  truly  said  that  the  apprentices  were  the  spoilt  children  of 
the  community.  The  rules  enjoin  on  the  masters  to  watch 
carefully  over  the  education  of  the  apprentice.  Some,  in  for¬ 
bidding  more  than  one  apprentice  to  the  master,  point  out  that 
the  instruction  of  a  single  pupil  suffices  to  absorb  his  attention. 
The  time  of  the  apprenticeship  should  be  completed.  It  is  a 
long  time  ;  four,  six,  or  eight  years.  The  master  who  provokes 
the  departure  of  an  apprentice  is  liable  to  a  fine  ;  but  if  it 
happen  that  an  apprentice  deserts  his  workshop,  the  master 
must  await  his  return  for  a  year  and  a  month  before  replacing 
him.  These  good  artisans,  so  severe  in  all  that  pertains  to 
morality,  are  full  of  indulgence  for  the  youthful  pranks  of 
the  apprentices,  for  their  44  folly,”  say  the  texts,  and  their 
44  jollity.” 

These  were  rules  which  were  observed  with  the  more  rigorous 
care,  inasmuch  as  they  were  the  work,  not  of  a  legislative 
power,  but  of  the  artisans  themselves. 

The  masters  or  patrons  are  the  industrial  leaders  of  the 
period  ;  the  apprentices  are  their  pupils  and  successors  :  they 
form  the  permanent  and  productive  element  in  the  middle 
classes.  Beneath  them,  and  under  their  direction,  lives  that 
which  we  call  to-day  the  working  class,  those  whom  the  statutes 
describe  as  the  valets ,  or  the  sergents ,  or  the  alloués .  Workmen, 
apprentices,  and  masters  live  in  common,  work  together,  and 
break  bread  at  the  same  table.  It  is  the  intimate  union  of 
the  factory  and  the  fireside,  this  latter  spreading  its  beneficent 
warmth  over  the  workshop.  The  master  exerts  over  his  work¬ 
man  not  only  a  technical  but  also  a  moral  patronage.  The 
workers  espouse  the  cause  of  their  patron  ;  they  group  them¬ 
selves  round  him  for  his  defence.  Moreover,  we  shall  see  the 
working  class  as  a  whole  standing  close  round  the  heads  of 
the  workshops  in  the  struggle  in  which  they  are  to  engage 
with  the  Patricians.  When  the  communal  militias  march  out 
of  the  town,  the  worker  marches  armed  beside  his  master.  It 

347 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


is  the  paternal  workshop,  always  animated,  let  us  be  clear  on 
the  subject,  by  the  very  spirit  which  produced  feudalism. 

The  thrifty  workman  earns  enough  to  establish  himself  in 
his  turn.  He  can  also  attain  to  a  mastership  by  marrying 
the  widow  or  daughter  of  a  master,  a  thing  which  frequently 
happened  in  the  intimacy  of  a  common  life.  The  workmen, 
besides,  form  part  of  the  corporation  ;  they  exercise  a  great 
influence  in  it  owing  to  their  numbers. 

The  number  of  hours  of  work  is  limited.  We  required 
nearly  a  century  after  the  great  Revolution  to  bring  us  back 
to  that.  The  Parisian  trades  put  into  practice  the  “  English 
week,”  which  was,  in  the  twelfth  to  the  thirteenth  century,  the 
French  week.  From  the  French  it  passed  to  the  English,  who, 
in  their  spirit  of  tradition,  preserved  it.  From  England  it  has 
come  back  to  France  :  as  a  stranger.  Night  work  is  forbidden. 
And  we  find  always  the  same  spirit  of  kindness.  The  work  of 
upholsterers  of  highly  polished  surfaces  was  forbidden  to 
women  as  too  fatiguing. 

Respect  for  women  is  one  of  the  chief  features  of  these 
customs  ;  it  is  joined  to  the  practice  of  a  worthy  and  moral 
manner  of  life.  Should  the  behaviour  of  a  workman  cause 
scandal  he  is  dismissed  from  the  trade  ;  or  even  exiled  from  the 
town  until  he  has  improved.  The  master  fuller  who  keeps  a 
workman  of  bad  life  is  condemned  to  a  fine.  The  beer-makers 
— or,  as  we  should  say,  the  brewers — impose  a  fine  of  twenty 
sous  for  bad  manufacture  or — and  this  is  an  admirable  feature — 
on  the  master  who  permits  the  sale  of  his  beer  in  bad  places. 

The  corporations  have  chests  for  assistance  replenished  by 
the  fines.  They  are  destined  for  the  help  of  old  members  of 
the  trade  who  have  fallen  into  destitution.  There  is  a  similar 
care  for  orphans.  “  The  masters  of  the  corporation  shall  have 
them  taught  a  trade  and  provide  them  with  all  things.” 

When  a  working  tailor  spoils  a  piece  of  stuff,  the  com¬ 
mittee  imposes  on  him  as  a  penalty  a  day’s  work  at  mending 
the  garments  of  the  poor.  The  trades  connected  with  food 
make  frequent  distributions  to  the  necessitous.  Article  X  of 
the  goldsmiths’  statutes  says  that  the  corporation  shall  cause 
to  be  opened,  on  each  Sunday  and  Feast  day,  the  shop  of  one 
goldsmith  (the  others  remaining  shut)  ;  and  the  profits  of  the 
348 


TOWN  AND  TRADE  ASSOCIATIONS 


sales  in  this  shop  on  this  day  were  used  to  prepare  a  fine  repast 
on  Easter  Sunday  for  the  poor  of  the  Hôtel-Dieu  (hospital),  in 
order  that  on  this  great  Feast  even  the  poor  should  have  feast¬ 
ing  and  merriment. 

The  observation  of  these  regulations  was  rendered  easier 
by  the  fact  that  the  various  corporations  remained  grouped 
each  in  one  of  the  quarters  of  the  town.  Mortar  was  made  in 
the  rue  de  la  Mortellerie  ;  the  leather  dressers  ( mégissiers )  were 
established  on  the  quay  of  the  Mégisserie,  and  the  goldsmiths 
on  the  Goldsmiths’  ( Orfèvres )  Quay.  The  saddlers  and  the 
stirrup  makers  occupied  a  part  of  the  rue  St.  Denis,  called  the 
rue  de  la  Sellerie.  We  have  already  shown  the  painters  in 
miniature  near  by  in  the  rue  Erembourc-de-Brie,  which  was 
often  called  the  “  Street  of  the  Illuminators.”  To  buy  haber¬ 
dashery  the  good  wives  betook  themselves  to  the  rue  Trousse- 
Vache  ;  and  the  squires  and  sergeants,  to  get  bows,  arrows, 
and  weapons,  stopped  at  the  stalls  which  surrounded  the  porte 
St.  Ladre.  The  counters  of  the  money-changers  ran  along 
the  paths  of  the  Grand-Pont  (great  bridge),  later  known  as 
the  Pont-au-Change,  while  the  important  corporation  of 
weavers  predominated  in  the  Quarter  of  the  Temple,  rue  Vieille- 
du-Tempe,  rue  Bourg-Thibout,  rue  de  la  Courtille-Barbette, 
rue  des  Rosiers,  rue  des  Escouffes,  rue  des  Blancs-Manteaux. 
The  dealers  in  old  clothes  and  furniture  gave  its  picturesque 
aspect  to  the  parish  of  St.  Merry.  During  the  weeks  of  Lent, 
when  the  church  bells  rang  for  Compline,  the  shops  were  closed. 

To  expose  the  perfection  of  the  customs  which  the  artificers 
of  the  Middle  Ages  had  succeeded  in  giving  themselves,  there 
is  for  that  matter  no  need  to  shake  off  the  dust  of  parchments. 
Do  not  those  incomparable  edifices,  the  pride  of  our  public 
squares,  which  no  contemporary  nation  could  rival,  preserve 
the  glorious  testimony  of  this  prosperity  ? 

The  craftsman  loved  his  labour  because  the  work  produced 
was  indeed  his  own  work.  Division  of  labour  was  not  known. 
Let  us  take  a  candlestick  or  a  pair  of  andirons  in  copper.  To¬ 
day  they  pass  from  the  hands  of  the  founder  into  those  of  the 
moulder,  then  into  those  of  the  chaser,  afterwards  to  the  bur¬ 
nisher,  and  finally  into  the  hands  of  the  gilder.  In  the  thirteenth 
century  the  manufactured  article  never  left  the  one  workshop. 

349 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


The  net  cost  was  indeed  higher  ;  but  the  finish,  the  solidity, 
the  artistic  character  of  the  manufactured  article,  have  dis¬ 
appeared  with  the  satisfaction  which  the  artisan  felt  in  pro¬ 
ducing  a  work  allj  his  own,  to  which  he  applied,  cordially, 
all  his  skill. 

It  is  not  that  there  were  not  then  as  in  every  epoch  some 
lazy  folk.  Many  a  comrade  preferred  the  tavern  to  the 
workshop  : 

At  terce  (9  a.m.)  he  says  that  it  is  Nones  (3  p.m.), 

And  at  Nones  that  it  is  night, 

And  as  soon  as  he  can  off  he  goes. 

He  does  not  care  so  long  as  he  is  paid 
And  can  eat  and  drink 
In  the  tavern.  .  .  . 

(Le  Besart  de  Dieu,  v.  1134.) 

Rutebeuf  said  : 

He  wishes  to  be  well  paid 
And  to  do  little.  .  .  . 


Strikes. 


It  is  not  either  that  strikes  did  not  take  place,  with  restraint 
of  blacklegs  and  peaceful  picketing.  Beaumanoir  devotes  these 

oft-quoted  lines  to  these  : 

“It  is  an  alliance  against  the  common  good, 
when  any  sort  of  people  agree  or  pledge  themselves  not  to 
work  at  so  low  a  wage  as  before,  and  thus  cause  their  wages 
to  be  increased  by  their  power,  and  agree  among  themselves 
that  they  will  not  work  for  less,  and  bring  injuries  and  threats 
to  bear  on  the  comrades  who  will  not  join  their  alliance  (the 
chasse  aux  jaunes). 

Beaumanoir  indicates  the  inconveniences  of  strikes  from 
his  point  of  view  :  “  And  thus  if  one  allowed  them  it  would 
be  against  the  general  good,  and  there  would  never  be  profitable 
sale  of  goods,  for  those  of  each  trade  would  take  bigger  salaries 
than  would  be  reasonable,  and  the  community  cannot  allow 
work  to  stop.”  The  legist  who  was  the  bailiff  of  Philip  the  Fair 
recommended  repressive  measures.  “  And  for  this  reason,  as 
soon  as  such  alliances  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  sovereign 
or  other  lords,  they  ought  to  lay  hands  on  them  and  keep  them 
close  prisoners  for  a  lengthy  period.  And  when  they  have 
had  a  long  term  of  punishment  in  prison,  a  fine  of  60  sous 
(1200  francs  now)  should  be  levied  on  each  of  them.” 

350 


TOWN  AND  TRADE  ASSOCIATIONS 


These  lines  are  inspired  by  events  which  must  certainly 
have  occurred  more  than  once  ;  but  the  artisans,  as  a  rule, 
remained  attached  to  their  patrons  in  the  struggle  in  which 
these  latter  were  about  to  engage  with  the  urban  patricians  : 
the  principal  cause  of  the  great  conflicts  which  are  to  mark 
the  reign  of  Philip  the  Fair. 

Sources. — G.  Fagniez,  Documents  relatifs  à  V histoire  du  commerce  et 
de  l'industrie  en  France ,  1898-1900,  2  vols.  ;  Le  livre  des  métiers  d'Etienne 
Boileau ,  Coll,  de  l’hist.  gen.  de  Paris,  1879  ;  Les  métiers  et  corporations 
de  la  Ville  de  Paris,  ed.  R.  de  Lespinasse,  same  collection,  1886-97,  3  vols.  ; 
Les  Métiers  de  Blois ,  ed.  Alf.  Bourgeois,  1892-97,  2  vols.  ;  Beaumanoir, 
Coutumes  du  Beauvaisis ,  ed.  Salmon,  1899-1900,  2  vols. 

Historical  Works. — Jacques  Flach,  Les  Origines  de  l'ancienne  France , 
1886-1917,  4  vols.  ;  Levasseur,  Histoire  des  classes  ouvrières  en  France, 
1857  ;  G.  Fagniez,  Etude  sur  l'industrie  au  XIIIe  Siècle,  1877  ;  Et.  Martin- 
Saint-Léon,  Histoire  des  corporations  de  métiers,  1899  ;  Ch.  V.  Langlois, 
La  Vie  en  France  au  moyen  age,  1908. 


351 


CHAPTER  XVII 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 

Portrait  of  Philip  the  Fair.  Life  at  the  French  Court.  Feudal 
robbery.  Popular  revolts.  The  Royal  administration,  bailiffs, 
and  beadles.  The  first  States-General.  The  Legists.  The 
Appeals  of  Aquitaine.  Sources  of  the  difficulties  with  England. 
The  depredations  at  sea  between  English  and  French.  War 
between  Philip  IV  and  Edward  I.  Alliance  between  the  King 
of  England  and  the  Count  of  Flanders.  Defeat  of  the  English 
at  Beauregard  and  of  the  Flemish  at  Furnes  (1297).  Boniface 
VIII,  his  conflict  with  Philip  the  Fair.  Guillaume  de  Nogaret. 
The  rising  of  the  Flemish  communes,  Peter  Coninc  and  Guillaume 
de  Juliers.  The  “  Matins  of  Bruges  ”  and  the  battle  of  Courtrai 
(1302).  The  Treaty  of  Paris  (20th  May  1303).  The  outrage  of 
Anagni  (7th  September  1303).  Death  of  Boniface  VIII.  Victory 
of  Mons-en-Pevele  (18th  August  1304).  Election  of  Clement  V. 
Financial  administration  :  Enguerrand  de  Marigny.  Trial  and 
condemnation  of  the  Templars.  Scandals  at  the  French  Court. 
Death  of  Philip  the  Fair.  Philip  the  Catholic. 


THE  Crusade  of  Aragon  ended  in  a  check.  After  the 
death  of  Philip  the  Bold,  on  5th  October  1285  at 
Perpignan,  the  command  of  the  army  was  assumed 
by  his  eldest  son,  then  seventeen  years  of  age.  From  the 
first  moment  he  was  opposed  to  this  distant  and  fanci- 

The  Rei  n  of  ^  exPec^on  beyond  the  Pyrenees.  After  he 
the  Devil  *iac^  cari^e<^  ou^  the  obsequies  of  his  father  in 

the  cathedral  of  Narbonne,  Philip  the  Fair  re¬ 
turned  to  Paris. 

King  Philip  IV,  called  already  by  his  contemporaries  Philip 
the  Fair,  was  a  fine  young  man  with  broad  shoulders  and  robust 
limbs.  When  the  Court  met  he  stood  a  head  above  the  assembly, 
in  this  recalling  his  grandfather  ;  but  while  Saint  Louis  was 
slender  and  thin,  the  vigour  of  his  grandson  corresponded  to 
his  great  stature.  If  he  pressed  with  his  clenched  fists  on  the 
352 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


shoulders  of  two  men-at-arms  he  made  them  bend  to  the 
ground.  “  His  thighs  and  legs  were  so  long,”  wrote  the  Templar 
of  Tyre,  “  that  his  feet  were  only  a  palm’s  distance  from  the 
ground  when  he  rode.”  He  carried  himself  very  erect  and 
with  a  native  majesty.  “  No  one  seeing  him  among  others,” 
notes  a  contemporary,  “  would  have  required  to  ask  which 
was  the  King.”  Blond  ringlets  framed  a  face  of  striking 
whiteness.  He  had  large  blue  eyes,  blue  like  steel.  Their 
expression  was  hard  and  haughty.  The  majesty  of  his  look 
overawed  those  who  came  before  him.  The  Bishop  of  Pamiers, 
Bernard  Saisset,  lost  his  tongue  and  avenged  himself  by  a 
boutade  : 

“  Our  King,”  said  he,  “  resembles  the  horn-owl,  the  finest 
of  birds  and  yet  the  most  useless.  He  is  the  finest  man  in  the 
world  ;  but  he  only  knows  how  to  look  at  people  fixedly  without 
speaking.” 

All  that  one  learned  about  the  young  monarch  was  in 
keeping  with  his  grave  and  dignified  exterior.  An  Italian 
speaks  of  his  “  venerable  youth.”  His  morals  were  beyond 
reproach  though  perhaps  a  little  ruthless  :  one  of  his  first  acts 
was  to  expel  women  from  the  Court. 

Philip  the  Fair  had  an  austere  piety.  Every  morning  he 
assisted  at  Mass  ;  twice  a  week  he  kept  rigorous  fast  ;  he  wore 
a  hair  shirt  next  his  skin  ;  he  made  his  confessor  give  him 
the  discipline.  Even  his  adversaries  did  not  represent  him 
otherwise.  They  would  have  said  with  Guillaume  de  Nogaret  : 

“  He  is  chaste,  humble,  modest  in  bearing  and  speech. 
He  is  never  angry.  He  hates  no  one  ;  he  is  jealous  of  none  ; 
full  of  grace  and  charity  ;  pious,  merciful  ;  pursuing  at  all 
times  truth  and  justice.  Detraction  finds  no  place  in  his 
mouth.  He  is  fervent  in  his  faith,  religious  in  his  life.  He 
builds  basilicas  and  practises  works  of  piety.  .  .  .  God  works 
miracles  through  his  hands.” 

He  raised  some  sumptuous  piles,  such  as  the  Palais  de 
Justice,  whose  towers  are  reflected  in  the  waters  of  the  Seine. 
When  it  was  a  matter  of  doing  honour  to  the  House  of  France, 
he  displayed  a  dazzling  splendour  ;  but  his  daily  life  was  of 
an  extreme  simplicity.  At  his  table  only  three  dishes  were 
served.  On  fast  days  four  dishes  were  allowed.  Philip  the 

z  353 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Fair  permitted  only  wines  gathered  in  his  vineyards,  and  these 
were  not  situated  in  Champagne,  Burgundy,  or  Bordeaux. 
At  the  King’s  table,  however,  only  water  coloured  with  wine 
was  drunk.  Dessert  was  of  fruits  grown  in  the  royal  orchards  ; 
in  Lent,  of  nuts,  figs,  and  dried  raisins. 

His  dress  was  as  simple  as  his  table.  With  his  family  his 
ministers  and  his  officers  he  led  a  familiar  existence,  and  he 
was  equally  familiar  with  his  subjects.  The  Florentine  Bar- 
barino  expressed  his  surprise  to  see  this  terrible  Philip  the 
Fair,  who  “  cast  his  shadow  over  the  whole  of  Christendom  ” 
(Dante),  return  the  greeting  of  three  roysterers  of  the  lowest 
class,  and  allowing  himself  to  be  detained  by  them  at  the  corner 
of  a  street  in  order  to  hear  their  complaints.  The  King  stood 
upright  with  his  feet  in  the  mud  ;  he  wore  a  white  head-dress  ; 
the  three  soldiers  spoke  to  him  with  their  caps  in  their  hands. 
And  Barbarino  does  not  omit  to  note  the  difference  between 
these  royal  customs  and  the  haughtiness  of  the  Florentine  lords. 

His  one  distraction  was  the  chase.  He  had  at  Fontainebleu 
a  pack  of  forty-two  harriers.  Knowing  from  this  how  to  make 
themselves  agreeable  to  him,  his  subjects  brought  him  vultures 
and  falcons. 

Unlike  his  father,  who  was  no  scholar,  Philip  the  Fair  had 
received  through  the  care  of  his  tutor  the  chaplain,  Guillaume 
d’Ercuis,  a  good  education.  He  understood  Latin  and  retained 
his  taste  for  study. 

Such  was  the  prince  of  whom  the  famous  historians  Michelet 
and  Renan  have  written  :  “  One  would  readily  say  that  his  reign 
is  the  reign  of  a  devil.” 

Under  Saint  Louis  feudal  society  had  reached  its  highest 
development — the  “  golden  age,”  the  feudal  lords  will  call  it 
fifty  years  later  ;  but  already  there  were  premonitions  of  decay. 

Thanks  to  the  protection  which  the  lords  had  assured  to 
labour  in  the  country  and  the  organization  that  the  patricians 
had  given  to  the  towns,  agriculture  had  prospered,  industry  was 
born,  commerce  had  developed  ;  a  relative  peace  reigned  in  the 
land.  By  very  reason  of  this  progress,  of  which  the  lords  and 
patricians  had  been  the  chief  agents,  their  rôle  became  useless, 
though  they  continued  to  receive  the  rights  and  enjoy  the 
privileges  which  it  had  assured  them  when  it  had  been  necessary. 
354 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 

One  saw  the  feudal  barons  continuing  to  levy  their  dues  on 
the  countryside  and  even  in  the  towns,  rights  of  justice,  rent  and 
tithe,  toll  and  market  dues,  rights  of  relief  and  exchange, 
meilleur  catel,  champart ,  corvée ,  and  banalités.  Champart 
involved  the  paying  to  the  feudal  lord  of  a  share  in  the  harvest  ; 
corvée  meant  the  furnishing  of  a  number  of  days’  labour.  The 
crenellated  walls  of  the  castle  keep,  which,  in  the  formative 
period  of  feudalism,  had  offered  their  protection  to  the  country¬ 
man  who  had  assisted  in  their  construction,  no  longer  defended 
anything  but  an  unjustifiable  exploitation,  and  the  peasant 
dreamed  only  of  demolishing  them. 

The  trader  who  transported  his  merchandise  from  one  part 
of  the  country  to  another  came  into  collision  with  similar 
obstacles.  At  road-crossings,  in  the  passage  of  bridges,  at 
fords,  at  the  raising  of  locks,  in  entering  canals,  on  the  fringe 
of  the  woods,  at  each  corner,  turning,  or  cross-roads,  he  saw 
appear  the  agents  of  some  local  fisc,  flanked  by  men-at-arms  who 
cast  themselves  upon  his  baggage  like  birds  of  prey  and  only 
loosed  their  hold  when  they  had  extorted  ransom. 

The  writers  of  the  thirteenth  century,  in  particular  Jean  de 
Meun,  the  author  of  the  Roman  de  la  Rose ,  which  Philip  the  Fair 
read  frequently,  interpreted  the  popular  passions. 

Of  the  first  ages,  Jean  de  Meun  writes  : 

Rich  were  all  equally, 

And  they  loved  each  other  loyally, 

The  simple  folk  of  good  life  : 

Then  was  love  without  seigniory. 

He  makes  the  villeins,  speaking  of  the  nobles,  say  : 

We  are  men  as  they, 

Members  have  we  as  they, 

We  have  as  great  heart  as  they. 

Moreover,  continues  the  poet,  what  is  the  virtue  of  this 
nobility  which  exploits  the  commonalty  ? 

It  is  too  bereft  of  morals, 

And  weaned  from  its  ancestors 
Who  bore  themselves  nobly. 

They  are  the  offspring  cast-off, 

Counterfeit  and  badly  sprung, 

And  in  them  is  no  lineage. 


355 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Let  us  open  the  doctrinal  of  Jean  de  Weert  :  “At  the  end 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  entire  provinces  were  destroyed  by  the 
rivalries  of  noble  families,  the  lords  of  the  country  taking  one 
side  or  another,  and  fighting  on  the  back  of  Jacques  Bonhomme. 
A  man  of  the  people  has  no  longer  any  security  for  his  pos¬ 
sessions.  From  his  keep  poised  on  the  neighbouring  4  motte,’ 
like  a  bird  of  prey  of  which  he  bears  the  name,  the  4  hobereau  ’ 
pounces  upon  his  neighbours  ;  those  who  possess  rich  houses  are 
carried  off  to  the  battlemented  castles  and  thrown  into  some 
dungeon  ;  they  are  there  put  to  torture  until  they  have  given 
up  some  part  of  their  goods.  The  merchants  are  robbed  ;  or 
else  the  nobles  go  into  partnership  with  the  brigands,  to  whom 
they  give  shelter  in  their  keeps  in  order  to  share  with  them  the 
spoil  of  their  victories.  Other  of  the  lords  hire  themselves  out 
as  mercenaries.  They  take  no  interest  in  the  cause  they 
espouse  :  their  interest  is  engaged  in  slaughter  and  pillage  as  a 
means  of  improving  their  future.  Such  are  the  nobles,”  con¬ 
cludes  Jean  de  Weert.  44  What  hastthou  left  me,  dear  husband  ?” 
cries  the  widow  of  the  lord  of  La  Roche-Guyon.  44  Poverty 
reigns  in  thy  dwelling  ;  thou  hast  abstained  from  all  brigandage 
on  thy  neighbours  and  on  the  poor.” 

In  the  towns  the  situation  is  similar.  The  patriciate  is  itself 
déclassé.  The  absorption  of  the  municipal  liberties  by  the  royal 
power  is  the  theme  of  the  lamentations  of  modern  historians. 
But  what  had  these  municipal  liberties  become  ?  The  popula¬ 
tion  of  the  towns  was  divided  into  two  classes  :  the  patricians 
and  the  commonalty.  The  patricians  have  all  the  privileges — 
privileges  which  in  their  origin  had  been  justified  by  the 
part  played  by  them  in  the  formation,  development,  and 
defence  of  the  city,  but  which  for  some  years  now  had  no 
longer  any  justification.  Beaumanoir  thus  describes  the 
situation  :  44  The  poor  and  the  middle  class  had  none  of  the 
offices  of  the  town  ;  the  rich  held  them  all.  These  were  skilful 
in  evading  all  control,  and  it  was  in  vain  that  any  one  brought  an 
accusation  of  fraud  or  imposition  against  them,  however  well 
founded.  And  the  poor  could  not  endure  them  ;  but  they  knew 
not  the  proper  wray  to  secure  their  rights  except  to  attack  them.” 

As  the  patricians  feared  riots,  they  forbade  the  artisans  to 
gather  together  more  than  seven  at  a  time,  to  make  collections 
356 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


among  themselves,  or,  as  the  documents  say,  to  club  together 
( boursiller ).  Those  who  broke  these  regulations  were  punished 
with  the  utmost  severity,  were  driven  from  the  town,  and  had 
their  eyes  put  out. 

These  precautions  did  not  prevent  revolts.  At  Puy,  in  1296, 
the  people  pursued  their  enemies  into  the  church,  where  the 
latter  succeeded  in  barricading  themselves.  The  people  pulled 
off  the  roof,  penetrated  the  edifice,  and  after  piercing  the  eyes 
of  the  tax  collectors  whom  they  found  there,  the  artisans  threw 
them  from  the  top  of  the  building  on  to  the  pavement.  In 
1279,  in  order  to  suppress  a  popular  rising  at  Provins,  so  many 
of  the  common  people  were  hung  that  there  were  no  more  left  in 
the  town.  The  following  year,  at  Arras,  the  trades  corporations 
walked  the  streets,  bearing  their  banners.  The  workmen  cried, 
46  Death  to  the  échevins  and  rich  men.”  Some  of  the  mutineers 
had  their  heads  cut  off,  and  the  excitement  died  down.  Then 
a  number  of  the  rioters  were  dragged  through  the  street  naked 
and  panting,  their  heads  bumped  on  the  paving-stones,  and  the 
poor  wretches  at  the  point  of  death.  Others  were  hung. 

A  short  time  afterwards  the  popular  party  took  its  revenge. 
They  seized  the  government  of  the  town.  The  patricians  had 
to  flee.  The  great  poet  Adam  de  la  Plalle,  who  took  their  part, 
followed  them  into  exile.  It  was  on  this  occasion  that  he 
wrote  his  famous  congé  which  perhaps  inspired  the  “  testament  ” 
of  Villon  : 

Arras,  Arras,  town  of  pleasure  ; 

And  of  hatred  and  of  calumny, 

Which  used  to  be  so  noble.  .  .  . 

A  charming  motet  of  the  same  Adam  de  la  Halle  shows  the 
44  good  company  ”  of  the  town  : 

Leaving  friends,  houses,  and  armour, 

Fleeing  by  twos  and  threes, 

Living  in  a  foreign  land.  .  .  . 

At  Douai  the  same  year,  the  working  class  rose  against  the 
traders.  Twelve  aldermen  were  killed.  On  15th  November 
the  riot  was  suppressed  with  bloodshed. 

These  popular  movements  were  repeated  at  Châlons,  Rouen, 
Ypres,  Bruges,  Lille,  Alby,  Cahors,  Bordeaux,  and  Tournai. 

357 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


The  clergy  went  through  a  similar  crisis.  It  was  marked 
by  the  Council  of  Rouen  in  1299. 

France  is  in  a  state  of  disintegration.  One  after  another  the 
institutions  which  from  the  foundation  to  the  full  establishment 
hold  up  the  edifice,  crack  and  break  down.  But  has  the  royal 
power  in  this  crisis  the  means  to  hand  for  the  accomplishment  of 
its  task?  The  feudal  lords  cry  to  him,  “The  King  has  no 
right  to  know  or  to  see  our  lands.” 

Among  the  great  feudal  lords,  some  like  the  King  of  England, 
Duke  of  Aquitaine,  are  as  powerful  as  the  King  of  France  ; 
others  like  the  Duke  of  Brittany  and  the  Count  of  Flanders  rule 
over  provinces  which  live  a  foreign  life.  The  people  of  Langue¬ 
doc  detest  the  French.  From  one  frontier  of  the  country  to 
another  there  exist  a  multitude  of  usages,  customs,  traditions, 
jurisdictions,  and  privileges,  contradictory  and  different,  but 
tenacious,  which  the  King  cannot  touch  ;  the  great  mass  of  the 
nation  is  in  rebellion  against  the  ruling  class,  who  do  not  the  less 
continue  to  enjoy  the  resort  to  public  action  ;  everywhere 
disorganization,  anarchy,  the  danger  of  seeing  several  provinces 
become  independent  or  fall  into  foreign  hands.  Behold  the 
reign  of  the  devil  of  which  Michelet  and  Renan  speak. 

In  this  vast  country,  bristling  with  local  independencies, 
the  King  was  represented  by  thirty-six  officers,  called  in  the 

North  “  baillis,”  and  in  the  South  “  seneschals  ”  : 
great  personages  who  received  from  the  royal 
treasury  very  high  pay.  From  time  to  time  the  King  sent 
them  instructions.  To  carry  out  these  instructions  the  baillis 
and  seneschals  had  under  their  orders  certain  officers  called 
“  provosts  ”  in  the  North,  “  beyles  ”  in  the  South.  These 
provosts  were  not  chosen  by  the  King  ;  they  leased  a  com¬ 
mission  given  to  the  highest  bidder.  They  became  proprietors  of 
a  commission  thus  acquired.  Their  functions  consisted  chiefly 
in  receiving  the  produce  of  the  royal  domains  and  the  judicial 
fines. 

The  provosts  had  under  their  orders  sergeants,  also  called 
beadles  (bedeaux).  Sergeants  and  beadles  were  also  proprietors 
of  their  commissions  by  right  of  purchase.  In  the  exercise  of 
their  functions  they  carried  a  short  round  wand,  decorated 
with  fleurs-de-lis.  These  functions  were  at  the  same  time  those 
358 


The  Legists. 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


of  our  huissiers  and  of  our  gendarmes.  The  people  detested 

them.  A  popular  preacher,  Friar  Nicholas  de  Biard,  wrote  : 
“  As  the  wolf  intrudes  in  order  to  carry  off  the  sheep,  so  the 
beadles  watch  the  occasion  to  steal  that  which  does  not  belong 
to  them.” 

These  persons  who,  in  number  and  function,  were  the  firmest 
and  in  reality  the  sole  support  of  the  royal  authority  in  the 
country,  were  not  in  favour  with  the  King.  In  the  eyes  of  the 
Court  they  appeared  to  be  “  an  infinite  multitude  who  devoured 
the  substance  of  the  people.”  In  1303  Philip  the  Fair  ordered 
the  number  to  be  reduced  by  four-fifths. 

Baillis,  provosts,  and  beadles,  these  were  all  the  King  had 
at  his  disposal  for  the  government  of  the  country.  A  singular 
government  !  The  baillis  held  the  travelling  assizes  ;  but  they 
had  not  the  right  to  sit  in  the  domains  of  the  lords  nor  in  those  of 
abbeys,  nor  where  the  jurisdiction  of  the  échevins  ran.  Where, 

then,  could  they  sit  ? 

Baillis  and  provosts  took  the  oath  to  be  good  and  faithful 
servants  of  the  King  and  ...  to  respect  local  immunities, 
which  were  in  essence  an  obstacle  to  the  authority  of  the  King. 
In  1303  they  were  equally  enjoined  to  receive  the  orders  of  the 
King  with  respect  ...  at  least  when  the  said  orders  were  not 
contrary  to  the  interests  of  the  prince.  As  each  of  them  held 
himself  to  be  judge  of  this  interest,  they  did  as  they  would. 

Moreover,  let  us  consider  the  territory  a  bailli  had  to  admin¬ 
ister.  Brittany  belonged  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  bailiwick  of 
Tours.  One  can  imagine  what  would  be  the  action  of  a  bailli, 
installed  at  Tours,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Rennes  or  of  Quimper, 
given  the  state  of  communications  the  suzerainty  of  the  Dukes 
of  Brittany,  the  local  immunities,  the  thousand  and  one  in¬ 
dependent  jurisdictions,  the  occupations  with  which  our  bailli 
was  overwhelmed,  his  ignorance  with  regard  to  what  concerned 
the  people  who  were  under  his  administration. 

And  yet,  in  this  realm,  organized  as  we  have  seen,  although 
the  prince  had  not  in  his  hands  the  necessary  jurisdictions  to 
make  his  authority  valid,  this  authority  was  the  only  force  that 
could  sustain  the  crumbling  society,  preserve  the  union  of  the 
provinces,  reconcile  the  warring  classes. 

It  is  one  of  the  arresting  moments  of  French  history.  The 

359 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


King  is  without  power  and  he  is  all-powerful  ;  it  would  not  be 
possible  for  him  to  impose  his  will  in  any  place,  and  in  every 
place  this  will  is  imposed.  He  has  more  than  the  compli¬ 
cated  machinery  of  an  administrative  bureaucracy  at  his 
disposal  :  he  has  the  belief  in  a  King. 

In  the  situation  in  which  the  country  finds  itself,  the  French 
feel  instinctively  that  the  person  of  the  King  alone  can  preserve 
the  integrity  of  the  country  in  face  of  the  crisis  which  threatens 
it  ;  they  see  that  it  alone  can  check  the  social  strife,  give  pro¬ 
gressively  to  the  nation  the  community  of  law  and  custom 
that  it  needs  ;  and  they  put  into  this  sentiment  an  energy  that 
will  make  it  triumph  over  all  obstacles. 

One  ought  to  add  that  Philip  the  Fair  possessed  in  a  remark¬ 
able  degree  the  qualities  useful  to  a  French  King  at  this  time. 

He  feels  that  his  power  lies  in  the  sentiment  which  binds  him 
to  his  people,  and  he  makes  his  government  the  government  of  the 
appeal  to  the  people.  Philip  the  Fair  never  took  an  important 
step,  never  went  through  any  formidable  crisis,  never  engaged  in 
any  enterprise  involving  grave  consequences,  without  approach¬ 
ing  the  nation,  without  taking  its  advice,  without  laying  before 
it  his  line  of  conduct,  without  striving  to  justify  himself  in 
its  eyes.  There  were  popular  assemblies,  travelling  missions, 
meetings  in  the  garden  of  the  palace,  letters  patent  spread 
abroad  everywhere.  There  is  mutual  confidence  and  de¬ 
votion  ;  the  people  are  attached  to  the  King  and  vow  him  a 
blind  fidelity. 

In  critical  circumstances  Philip  the  Fair  calls  together 
assemblies  in  which  scholars  have  discerned  the  first  attempts 
at  States-Generai.  His  subjects  sent  there  representatives. 
Is  it  to  give  their  opinion  there,  to  expound  their  interests,  to 
give  advice  or  counsel  ?  Consult  the  powers  given  by  the 
electors  to  their  deputies.  Some  are  deputed  “  to  hear  what 
the  King  shall  say  ”  ;  others  “  to  approve  what  the  King 
wishes  ”  ;  and  others  “  to  carry  out  the  King’s  pleasure.” 
Nothing  is  more  characteristic. 

This  faith  in  the  monarchy  had  not  only  innumerable 
faithful  adherents  in  all  classes  of  the  Nation  :  it  had  its 
fanatics. 

The  French  were  then  seen  becoming  wild  partisans  of  the 

360 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


royal  authority  and  of  its  extension.  Five  centuries  later  a 
similar  movement  will  break  out,  produced  by  similar  causes 
and  leading  to  similar  results.  The  44  Jacobins  ”  will  be 
fanatics  of  “  liberty,”  which  meant  for  them  44  administrative 
concentration,”  as  their  precursors  the  4 ‘  Royalists  ” — the 
word  comes  from  the  thirteenth  century — will  be  fanatics  of  the 
throne.  These  Royalists  are  to  produce  the  famous  44  legists  ” 
and  the  class,  which  so  rapidly  extended,  44  the  knights  of  the 
King.” 

Side  by  side  with  the  feudal  nobility  produced  by  the 
progressive  development  of  the  family,  there  was  created, 
after  three  centuries,  an  administrative  nobility.  This  latter 
drew  its  title  from  the  royal  authority  which  was  to  reorganize 
the  nation.  One  of  the  most  illustrious  of  these  44  knights  of 
the  King,”  Guillaume  de  Nogaret,  thus  defines  them  : 

44  They  are  not  nobles,  but  knights,  knights  of  the  King, 
since  the  King  has  accepted  them  for  his  men,  and  from  this 
comes  their  honour  and  dignity,  and  they  are  called  4  knights 
of  the  King.’  There  are  an  infinite  number  of  them  in  the 
realm  of  France.” 

They  are  men  of  a  new  class.  They  possess  a  knowledge 
of  the  law  ;  they  have  the  passion  for  the  royal  power  ;  they 
have  studied  Roman  history  and  dream  of  a  universal  monarchy 
like  that  held  by  the  Cæsars.  In  them  is  the  sentiment  of 
their  country,  which  they  wish  to  see  mighty  and  respected  ; 
they  have  the  vision  of  the  old  frontiers  of  Gaul,  which  their 
efforts  will  help  to  reconquer.  It  is  no  longer  the  power  of 
their  family  which  makes  their  force,  nor  the  might  of  their 
sword  ;  it  is  their  personal  intelligence,  their  devotion  to  the 
royal  power.  They  are  the  true  creators  of  the  modern  State. 
And  since  the  State  is  then  concentrated  in  the  Court  of  the 
King,  they  are  directed  by  a  dominant  idea,  which — like  the 
idea  in  the  brain  of  the  Jacobins  of  1793  of  an  administrative 
centralized  France — becomes  in  them  a  fixed  idea  :  the 
extension  of  the  rights  of  the  King. 

To  understand  the  work  of  the  legists  is  to  justify  it.  The 
extension  of  the  rights  of  the  King  was,  at  this  epoch,  the  one 
means  of  organizing — that  is  to  say,  of  pacifying  and  saving 
the  country.  And  with  what  passion  were  they  transported 

361 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


against  everything  which  could  form  an  obstacle  to  the  realiza¬ 
tion  of  their  dream  of  the  grandeur  and  unity  of  their  country. 
Do  not  let  us  lose  sight  of  the  Jacobins  of  1793.  These  are  the 
same  men,  the  same  characters,  following  the  same  end  by  the 
same  means  :  the  destruction  of  local  authorities  and  im¬ 
munities — what  the  men  of  1793  called  “  federalism  ” — and 
foreign  conquests.  “  The  legists,”  writes  Renan,  “  set  up  this 
noblesse  de  robe  whose  first  act  was  to  establish  the  omnipotence 
of  the  King  to  weaken  the  power  of  the  Church,  and  whose 
final  act  was  the  Revolution.” 

Philip  chose  these  legists,  following  the  counsel  of  Gilles  de 
Rome,  from  the  middle  class.  He  confined  the  seigniorial 
nobility  to  the  service  of  the  Court  and  the  army.  Some 
members  of  this  nobility  he  made  high  personages  bearing  on 
their  dress  picturesque  armorial  bearings  ;  but  beside  them 
“  the  little  people  of  the  Council  of  the  King  ”  had  in  their 
hands  the  direction  of  the  State. 

From  the  first  day  there  was  established  between  the  King 
and  his  legists  an  inviolable  compact.  They  mutually  under¬ 
stood  each  other  and  supported  each  other  resolutely. 

Among  his  legists  Philip  the  Fair  found  men  of  the  rarest 
gifts,  and  these  he  promoted  to  the  highest  offices  of  the  State. 

The  most  eminent  was  without  doubt  the  Auvergnian 
Pierre  Flote,  who  from  a  simple  sergeant  became  Chancellor  of 
France,  the  first  lavman  in  France  to  be  invested  with  this 
dignity.  He  filled  the  most  diverse  missions — administrative, 
judicial,  and  diplomatic.  His  eloquence  brought  him  a  European 
reputation.  It  was  he  who  pronounced  in  the  name  of  the 
King,  on  10th  April  1302,  in  the  assembly  of  the  States,  meet¬ 
ing  in  Notre  Dame,  the  discourse  against  Boniface  VIII  which 
made  so  great  a  stir.  We  have  unhappily  only  preserved  a 
phrase  of  it  ;  but  we  have  the  address  delivered  in  London, 
15th  June  1298,  before  Edward  I,  when  he  speaks  with  such 
force  and  pride  of  what  filled  his  soul,  of  the  greatness  of  the 
King  of  France. 

Boniface  VIII  held  him  in  execration  and  pursued  with 
sarcasms  “  this  one-eyed  man  who  was  blind  in  spirit.”  He 
called  him  shortly  “  the  little  one-eyed  advocate  ”  ;  and  it  is 
this  impression  that  posterity  has  preserved  of  him.  Pierre 
362 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


Flote  had  become  a  very  high  and  powerful  lord  by  rank, 
character,  and  fortune.  He  was  followed  by  a  princely  train. 
His  daughter  was  married  to  the  Constable  of  France, 
Gaucher  de  Châtillon.  He  was  himself  a  tried  soldier.  He 
saved  Lille  at  the  beginning  of  the  campaign  of  1302  by  throw¬ 
ing  himself,  at  the  opportune  moment,  with  a  body  of  troops 
into  the  fortress,  and  fell  under  the  walls  of  Courtrai,  arms  in 
hand,  in  the  battle  of  the  Golden  Spurs.  Moreover,  if  the 
commander  of  the  French  Army,  the  Count  of  Artois,  had  given 
heed  to  the  counsels  which  Flote  gave  him  before  the  action, 
the  battle  would  not  have  been  lost. 

Round  Pierre  Flote  were  other  legists  to  whom  the  King 
confided  the  most  varied  functions,  above  all  those  of  “  in¬ 
quisitor-reformers.” 

These  inquisitor-reformers  of  Philip  the  Fair,  chosen  from 
among  the  knights  and  clerks  of  the  King,  were  numbered  in 
hundreds  and  the  missions  with  which  they  were  charged  in 
thousands.  They  are  the  successors  of  the  famous  inquisitors 
of  Saint  Louis  ;  but  while  the  mission  of  these  was  confined  to 
rendering  justice  of  appeal,  the  inquisitor-reformers  of  Philip 
the  Fair  not  only  hear  the  appeals  which  the  inhabitants  made 
from  the  sentence  given  by  the  local  judges,  but  occupy  them¬ 
selves  with  the  general  organization  of  the  realm,  restore 
corrupt  customs  to  the  state  in  which  they  existed  “  in  the  time 
of  the  good  King  Louis,”  care  for  the  maintenance  of  bridges 
and  roads,  and,  above  all,  guard  with  a  vigilant  eye  the  rights 
of  the  King.  Moreover,  their  rôle  included  the  stopping  of  the 
usurpations  of  the  clergy,  seeing  that  the  abbeys  pay  the  mort¬ 
main  taxes,  enforcing  the  collection  of  impositions,  and  pre¬ 
venting  the  nobles  trampling  on  the  people.  The  knight, 
Hugh  de  la  Celle,  was  sent  to  Poitou,  where  he  remained  four 
years.  His  mission  was  to  put  an  end  promptly  “  without 
any  formal  process,”  writes  the  King,  “  to  armed  attacks,  and 
to  murders  which  desolate  the  country  and  to  the  usurpations 
of  royal  officials.”  And  this  last  trait  ought  not  to  surprise 
us  when  we  think  of  the  character  of  these  officials,  proprietors 
of  a  commission  which  they  have  bought  and  for  which  they 
naturally  seek  to  secure  the  greatest  possible  return.  “  In 
order  to  dissuade  the  subjects  from  denouncing  their  crimes,” 

363 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


writes  the  King  himself,  “  our  officials  state  that,  if  they  are 
suspended  from  their  offices,  they  will  quickly  be  replaced  ;  they 
say  that  the  numerous  inquests  of  which  they  have  been 
formerly  made  the  subject  came  to  nothing,  and  that  those 
which  are  made  in  the  future  will  not  be  any  more  formidable. 
Some  threaten  the  complainants,  others  are  clever  enough  to 
obtain  from  our  relatives  and  friends  letters  to  cover  up  their 
offences  ;  others  again  purchase  the  silence  of  their  victims.” 
Thus  is  the  tableau  complete. 

The  King  turned  his  attention  more  particularly  to  the 
provinces  of  the  south-west — Gascony,  Limousin,  Quercy, 

Périgord,  Agenais,  comprised  under  the  general 

o^A^dtahie  name  the  “  Duchy  of  Aquitaine.”  Their 

immediate  sovereign  was  the  King  of  England, 
who  was  the  more  to  be  feared  as,  at  the  moment,  the  English 
crown  was  worn  by  a  man  of  the  courage  of  Edward  I. 

One  can  do  this  justice  to  him,  that  he  carried  out  faith¬ 
fully  the  obligations  which  bound  him  to  the  new  King  of 
France.  The  Wednesday  of  Whit  week,  1297,  he  repaired  to 
Paris,  equipped  as  a  vassal,  and  in  the  great  hall  of  the  palace 
took  the  oath  of  fidelity  and  homage  between  the  hands  of 
Philip  the  Fair  for  the  lands  which  he  held  from  his  crown. 

For  his  part,  Philip  the  Fair,  following  the  line  of  policy 
traced  by  Saint  Louis,  made  in  1289  a  new  treaty  with  the  Crown 
of  England  by  which  he  ceded  to  it  the  towns  of  Limoges, 
Cahors,  and  Perigueux,  which  in  strict  right  he  had  the  power 
to  retain.  He  ceded  the  part  of  Saintonge  situated  to  the 
south  of  Charente.  With  regard  to  the  parts  of  Quercy  to 
which  the  English  monarch  made  claim,  Philip  the  Fair  refused 
to  deprive  his  crown  of  them  ;  but  by  way  of  indemnity  he 
assigned  to  the  English  King  £3000  of  the  Tours  currency. 
In  return,  modelling  himself  here  also  upon  Saint  Louis,  he 
took  care  to  exact  recognition  once  more  for  the  sovereignty 


of  the  Crown  of  France  over  the  whole  of  Aquitaine. 

Like  the  other  provinces  of  France,  Aquitaine  was  divided 
into  two  hostile  factions.  On  the  one  hand  were  the  high 
feudal  nobility  and  the  city  patricians,  on  the  other  hand  were 
the  lesser  nobles  of  the  country  and  the  popular  party  in  the 
towns. 

364 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


The  latter  faction,  the  lesser  nobility  and  small  bourgeoisie, 
assisted  by  the  working  class,  sympathized  with  the  English 
government,  whose  representatives  in  Aquitaine  supported  it 
in  the  struggle  against  the  great  nobles  and  the  patricians 
who  sought  the  favour  of  the  King  of  France. 

The  party  of  the  King  of  France  fortified  itself  by  the 
system  of  the  “  avoueries  ” — that  is  to  say,  it  drew  to  itself  the 
men  who,  to  escape  from  the  suzerainty  of  the  immediate 
lord,  declared  themselves  the  men  of  the  superior  and  distant 
sovereign,  and  therefore  less  troublesome — in  fact,  of  the  King 
of  France. 

These  avoués  of  the  King  were  grouped  in  the  new  towns, 
the  famous  new  towns  of  the  thirteenth  century — they  were 
called  “  bastides  ”  in  the  South.  They  were  places  fortified 
and  protected  by  royal  charters,  which  governed  themselves 
independently  of  local  sovereigns  with  the  claim  to  take  orders 
only  from  the  King  of  France.  It  was  particularly  on  the 
northern  frontiers  of  Aquitaine,  abutting  on  the  royal  domain, 
that  the  bastides  were  multiplied,  though  reaching  to  the 
Spanish  frontier. 

Already  one  can  appreciate  the  sources  of  conflict  between 
the  King  of  France  and  his  vassal  the  King  of  England,  the 
Duke  of  Aquitaine.  Then  there  were  the  “  royal  cases.” 

By  this  term  were  described  offences  which  touched  “  the 
general  security  of  the  kingdom  ” — an  elastic  definition  which 
the  legists  took  care  not  to  state  more  precisely.  Royal  cases, 
said  they,  are  those  which  “touch  the  King.”  But  in  the 
whole  realm,  including  Aquitaine,  the  cases  which  touched 
the  King,  i.e.  the  King  of  France — were  under  the  King’s 
jurisdiction.  And  as  soon  as  an  offence  of  the  royal  case 
quality  had  been  committed  in  Aquitaine  there  appeared 
officers,  armed  with  shields  bearing  the  fleur-de-lis  and 
supported  by  a  considerable  escort  who  set  themselves  to 
arrest,  imprison,  sequestrate,  confiscate,  question,  draw  up 
statements,  and  to  act  judicially  as  though  they  were  in 
Paris. 

This  was,  in  fine,  the  business  of  appeals. 

In  feudal  law  every  one  condemned  by  the  tribunal  of  his 
immediate  sovereign  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  appeal  to  his 

365 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


superior  sovereign.  What  happened  ?  A  given  person  lost 
his  case  before  the  officers  of  the  Duke  of  Aquitaine — that  is 
to  say,  the  King  of  England.  He  appealed  on  it  to  the  Court 
of  France.  From  that  moment,  in  so  far  as  it  concerned  him, 
all  action  of  the  local  powers  was  suspended.  He  found  him¬ 
self,  his  relations,  his  goods,  his  possessions  under  litigation, 
placed  under  the  authority  of  the  King  of  France.  One  must 
remember  the  leisureliness  of  communications  and  the  long 
processes  of  the  period. 

It  is  no  longer  possible  to  execute  malefactors  in  Aquitaine. 
An  assassin  is  condemned  to  death.  He  appeals.  From  this 
moment  the  executioner  is  held  at  a  distance  and  one  sees 
appear  the  representatives  of  the  Court  of  Paris,  who  take  our 
man  from  the  prison  where  he  has  been  in  custody  in  order 
to  remove  him  elsewhere.  Thus,  as  the  English  officers  held, 
“  murders  and  thefts  remain  without  any  punishment.” 
The  same  occurred  in  civil  matters.  The  party  which  lost 
appealed  to  the  Court  of  France.  From  that  moment  the  goods 
under  litigation  were  sequestrated,  and  there  were  at  times 
entire  fiefs  with  serfs  and  tenants,  the  administration  of  which 
was  thus  suspended  for  months  or  years. 

The  officers  of  the  King  of  England  tried  to  prevent  the 
appeals.  They  strove  to  accommodate  the  parties  and  come 
to  a  direct  understanding  with  them.  When  it  came  to  persuade 
a  condemned  person  that  the  better  part  for  him  was  to  let 
himself  hang,  the  matter  was  not  easy.  If  the  attempt  mis¬ 
carried,  the  English  officers  set  themselves  to  condemn  the 
appellant  systematically  in  any  other  suits  he  might  have 
begun.  It  was  an  exemplary  warning.  Seeing  this,  the  French 
King  declared  that  appellants  were  wholly  withdrawn  from 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Duke  of  Aquitaine,  to  be  solely  amenable 
to  the  Court  of  France,  and  this  in  all  the  matters  in  which  they 
were  engaged.  Another  habitual  practice  with  the  representa¬ 
tives  of  the  English  monarch  was  to  seize  the  goods  of  the  party 
who  was  going  to  lose  before  judgment  was  pronounced,  so  that 
they  could  argue  afterwards  that  the  seizure  was  anterior  to 
the  appeal.  The  appellant  thus  found  himself  deprived  of 
the  use  of  his  property  over  the  whole  duration  of  the  procedure 
of  the  Court  of  France,  which  was  often  very  long.  But  then 
366 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


there  arrived  French  sergeants  who  compelled  the  English 
officers  to  release  what  they  had  taken. 

Sometimes  the  English  King’s  emissaries  threw  into  prison 
without  any  judicial  formality  those  who  appealed  to  the 
Court  of  France  ;  there  they  constrained  them  by  threats, 
blows,  or  by  the  most  cruel  tortures  to  withdraw  their  appeal. 
They  threatened  with  death  the  clerics  or  notaries  who  dared 
to  draw  up  the  appeal.  At  other  times,  seizing  the  appellants, 
they  forced  apart  their  jaws  to  the  extreme  limit  by  introducing 
wooden  wedges  into  their  mouths,  to  such  purpose  that  the 
miserable  wretches  were  unable  to  utter  the  least  sound,  and, 
after  having  bound  them  in  the  public  road,  they  cried  to  them 
mockingly,  “  Appeal  about  it  to  the  King  of  France  !  ” 

The  appellants  were  equally  exposed  to  the  violences  of  the 
opposite  side  whom  the  English  officers  supported.  The  King 
of  France  because  of  it  came  to  authorize  them  to  carry  arms. 
As  a  consequence,  their  adversaries  also  armed  themselves  ; 
relatives  and  friends  took  part  on  one  side  or  the  other,  and  while 
waiting  for  the  dispute  to  be  decided  at  Paris,  they  murdered 
each  other  in  the  streets  of  Bayonne  or  the  rugged  roads  of 
Limousin. 

The  seneschal  of  Saintonge  who,  on  the  frontier,  was  charged 
with  the  duty  of  making  the  French  King’s  authority  respected 
in  Aquitaine,  gave  to  the  appellants  sergeants  and  guards. 
These  came  armed  with  the  baton,  marked  with  a  fleur-de-lis 
which  made  them  inviolable.  At  the  house  of  the  appellant, 
they  hung  up  a  shield  bearing  a  fleur-de-lis  above  the  main  door. 
On  the  limits  of  his  properties  they  drove  in  stakes  on  which 
they  hung  other  royal  shields.  This  did  not  prevent  the 
appellants  fortifying  themselves  on  their  lands  and  surrounding 
themselves  with  paid  troops  for  greater  safety.  Thus  in  the 
English  provinces  of  France  centres  of  resistance  to  the  English 
King  multiplied  themselves  under  the  ægis  of  the  King  of 
France.  The  adversaries  of  the  government  of  London  defied 
it  publicly,  escorted  by  French  sergeants  ;  but  at  other  times 
the  French  sergeants  were  attacked,  chased  from  their  guard- 
room,  and  beaten  unmercifully — a  source  of  fresh  conflicts 
between  France  and  England. 

The  environs  of  Dax  and  Riom  were  cut  up  by  veritable 

367 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


little  armies  of  appellants  who  levied  contributions  on  their 
adversaries  and  declared  themselves,  from  the  fact  of  their 
appeal,  withdrawn  from  the  authority  of  the  local  magistrates. 
Under  cover  of  these  disorders,  bands  of  brigands  roamed 
through  the  country,  doing  open  violence  to  the  people,  sacking 
houses  and  churches,  killing,  stealing,  plundering,  and  saying 
to  the  officials  of  the  English  seneschal  of  Aquitaine  who  came 
to  bring  them  to  reason,  “  We  are  appellants  to  the  Court  of 
France,  and  we  have  nothing  to  do  with  you.”  They  had 
even  procured,  no  one  knows  how,  some  French  sergeants-at- 
arms  to  cover  their  crimes  with  the  august  patronage  which 
these  represented. 

From  the  fact  of  the  appeals,  the  administration  of  the 
County  of  Aquitaine  had  become  impossible.  Unless  one  of 
the  two  parties,  the  King  of  France  or  the  King  of  England, 
renounced  his  rights — that  which  neither  the  one  nor  the 
other  was  disposed  to  do — the  situation  was  inextricable. 
Whatever  goodwill  Philip  the  Fair  and  Edward  I  felt  towards 
each  other,  the  French  suzerainty  over  the  provinces  of  the 
South-west,  possessed  by  the  Crown  of  England,  made  a  conflict 
inevitable. 

Nevertheless,  if  we  find  in  the  situation  of  Aquitaine  the 
true  cause  of  the  war  which  will  break  out  between  France 
and  England,  that  will  not  be  the  pretext. 

Between  the  seamen,  subjects  of  the  King  of  France,  i.e. 
the  Normans  and  Flemings,  on  the  one  side,  and  those  subject 
to  the  King  of  England,  i.e.  the  English  and  Gascon  seamen, 
on  the  other,  there  had  been  for  some  years  a  perpetual  struggle. 
The  cause  of  these  conflicts,  incessantly  renewed,  was  the  custom 
of  letters  of  marque  given  by  one  country  or  the  other.  Let 
us  take  one  example  out  of  a  thousand.  An  Englishman 
named  Brown,  the  owner  of  cloth  to  the  value  of  £200  in 
the  ship  of  a  citizen  of  Bayonne,  named  Duverges,  complains 
to  the  King  of  England  that  the  said  cloth  had  been  taken 
with  the  said  ship  by  the  French,  in  view  of  Dover.  As  com¬ 
pensation  he  demands  the  power  to  seize  £200  worth  of  wine 
which  is  in  a  French  ship  anchored  in  the  port  of  Winchel- 
sea.  The  latter  vessel  belonged  to  some  people  of  Calais,  and 
when  they  saw  t  hemselves  deprived  of  their  wine,  they  demanded, 
368 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


in  their  turn  in  the  Court  of  France,  a  letter  of  marque — such 
was  the  name  of  these  authorizations — to  act  on  the  sea  against 
the  people  of  England  or  Bayonne,  and  take  from  them 
merchandise  up  to  the  value  of  200  pounds  sterling.  The 
letters  were  granted  ;  some  merchants  of  Bayonne  were 
robbed  ;  but  they  hastened  to  petition  the  King  of  England 
to  authorize  them  to  recover  200  pounds  worth  of  goods  from 
the  people  of  the  King  of  France.  There  was  no  reason  why 
this  game — a  game  of  bloody  robberies — should  ever  cease. 
There  were  even  reasons  tvhy  it  should  not  finish  and  should 
lead  to  more  and  more  complications.  These  letters  of  marque 
were  given  by  hundreds.  One  can  imagine  the  sort  of  encounters 
between  French  and  English  seamen  from  the  coasts  of  Spain 
to  those  of  Zeeland. 

These  struggles  assumed  an  extreme  ferocity.  Normans 
and  Flemings,  like  the  English  and  Bayonnais,  were  proud  of 
hanging  at  their  mast-heads  the  seamen  of  the  other  side  whom 
they  had  contrived  to  capture.  They  found  pleasure  in  regard¬ 
ing  these  corpses  tossed  about  by  the  wind.  On  one  occasion 
the  Normans  seize  some  merchandise  carried  on  an  English 
vessel  in  the  open  sea,  after  having  drowned  its  whole  crew. 
The  English  retort  by  cropping  the  ears  of  the  seamen  whom 
they  find  on  a  French  ship.  On  another  occasion,  the  French 
or  English  set  the  boats  adrift  after  having  previously  cut  off 
the  hands  and  feet  of  the  whole  crew.  In  the  sun  on  the  open 
sea,  lying  on  the  bridge,  the  miserable  wretches  expired  in 
terrible  agony.  It  would  take  too  long  to  pass  in  review  the 
infinite  series  of  massacres  and  pillages. 

The  officials  of  the  King  of  France  and  those  of  the  King 
of  England  united  their  efforts  in  the  attempt  to  re-establish 
peace  between  the  rival  nations.  The  seamen  of  both  parties 
who  could  be  gathered  together  were  assembled  in  a  given  port, 
and  they  were  made  to  take  an  oath  to  keep  the  peace  ;  but, 
far  from  calming  down,  the  conflict  assumed  greater  and  greater 
proportions.  The  ships  of  both  nations  only  went  out  now 
in  fleets  in  order  to  give  mutual  assistance,  and  when  two 
opposed  fleets  encountered  each  other,  true  naval  battles 
occurred. 

On  24th  April  1293,  a  great  number  of  English  seamen 

2  A  369 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


left  Portsmouth  on  more  than  two  hundred  ships.  Some  days 
later  the  Normans,  on  225  well-equipped  vessels,  put  out  from 
the  harbour  of  Charente.  The  encounter  took  place  on  15th 
May  1293,  near  the  coast  of  Brittany,  off  Cape  St.  Mathew. 
The  vessels  were  all  provided  with  “  fortified  towers  ” 
which  turned  them  into  warships.  At  the  top  of  the  masts 
floated  long  banners  of  red  cendal  two  yards  broad  and 
thirty  yards  long.  These  banners,  say  the  English  sailors  in 
the  narrative  they  have  left  of  these  events,  called  in 
French  “Boucan,”  mean  “death  beyond  repair  and  mortal 
combat  in  every  place  where  sailors  are.”  The  battle  was 
terrible.  The  English  were  victorious.  The  French  ships 
were  taken  or  sunk.  Some  Normans  on  light  skiffs  con¬ 
trived  to  regain  the  coast  of  Brittany.  It  was  reported  to 
the  King  of  France  that,  in  the  English  fleet,  were  sixty  strong 
warships  which  had  been  fitted  out  with  a  view  to  an  expedition 
in  Palestine.  The  English  government,  then,  had  encouraged 
the  enterprise.  Some  days  after  the  victory,  some  English 
and  men  of  Bayonne  surprised  la  Rochelle.  They  penetrated 
into  the  town,  killed,  pillaged,  burned,  and  then  returned 
laden  with  booty. 

Philip  the  Fair  sent  an  ambassador  to  London  to  demand 
justice.  He  demanded  the  restitution  of  the  captured  vessels, 
the  liberty  of  the  French  sailors  who  had  been  taken  prisoner,  and 
considerable  indemnities.  Edward  I  took  a  high  line.  The 
English  Court,  he  replied,  has  tribunals  which  hear  charges 
and  give  equitable  decisions.  This  brought  on  him  a  citation 
from  Philip  the  Fair,  in  his  quality  of  suzerain,  dated  27th 
October,  summoning  him  to  appear  as  Duke  of  Aquitaine  before 
the  Parliament  of  Paris,  to  justify  the  crimes  committed  by  his 
subjects,  or  in  default  know  himself  condemned.  While  waiting 
for  the  appearance  of  the  English  King,  Philip  the  Fair  pro¬ 
nounced  reversion  of  the  lands  held  by  Edward  I  under  the 
suzerainty  of  the  Crown  of  France. 

Passions  were  greatly  excited.  At  Bordeaux  there  was  a 
massacre  of  the  French.  At  Fronsac  some  officers  of  Philip  the 
Fair  were  murdered.  Two  of  his  sergeants,  who  had  been  sent 
as  guards  of  the  Château  of  Cuiller,  were  hung.  Jean  de  St. 
Jean,  who  commanded  in  Aquitaine  as  lieutenant  of  Edward  I, 
370 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


had  the  head  cut  off  of  a  knight  belonging  to  the  suite  of  Raoul 
de  Nesle,  Marshal  of  France. 

Edward  I,  who  had  been  cited  before  the  Parliament  of 
Paris  for  14th  January,  did  not  appear.  He  was  declared 
contumacious,  and  the  Court  of  France  declared  confiscated 
all  that  the  English  Crown  held  under  the  suzerainty  of  the 
fleur-de-lis. 

We  must  make  no  mistake  :  we  are  on  the  threshold  of  the 
Hundred  Years  War.  The  complex  and  disorderly  struggle 
which  was  to  endure  a  century  and  a  half,  and  to  carry  us  from 
the  Middle  Ages  to  the  Renaissance,  began  with  this  rupture 
between  Philip  the  Fair  and  Edward  I — a  social  war  rather 
than  a  national  war  ;  a  long  fermentation  of  conflicting 
elements  from  which  will  emerge  a  new  social  state  :  the 
Renaissance. 

The  policy  of  Edward  I,  at  the  beginning  of  the  conflict,  has 
not  been  understood.  He  sent  to  France  his  brother,  Edmund 
of  Lancaster,  to  order  his  lieutenant  in  Aquitaine,  Jean  de  St. 
Jean,  to  restore  to  Philip  the  Fair  the  duchy  which  he  reclaimed. 
There  was  even  a  ceremony  of  remission  at  Valence  d’Agen,  5th 
March  1294,  when  the  Marshall  of  France,  Raoul  de  Clermont  - 
Nesle,  received  in  the  name  of  his  master,  from  the  hands  of  the 
seneschal  of  Gascony,  Jean  de  Havering,  the  reversion  of  the 
lands  which  Edward  I  held  under  French  suzerainty.  At  the 
same  time  the  keys  of  Bordeaux,  Bayonne,  and  Agen  were 
sent  to  the  King  of  France. 

What  was  the  purpose  of  Edward  I  ?  He  wished  to  delay 
the  action  of  the  King  of  France,  since  already  Raoul  de  Nesle 
was  on  the  frontier  of  Agenais  with  a  powerful  army.  The 
English  troops  were  still  in  England,  and  fighting  the  Welsh. 
In  other  words,  Edward  hoped  to  reconquer  by  force  of  arms 
the  lands  of  which  the  Crown  of  France  had  just  retaken  pos¬ 
session,  and  to  find  himself,  after  this  conquest,  delivered  from 
the  suzerainty  which  made  the  government  of  these  provinces 
impossible  for  him. 

Whilst,  at  Valence  in  Agenais,  Jean  de  Havering  handed 
over  to  the  representative  of  the  French  King  the  possession  of 
Aquitaine,  from  north  to  south  of  this  province  the  English 
officers  and  their  adherents  were  organizing  resistance.  And 

371 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


when  the  French  officers  presented  themselves  in  order  to 
take  over  the  towns,  Jean  de  St.  Jean  made  them  shut  the  gates 
in  their  face. 

Philip  the  Fair  saw  the  plan  of  his  rival.  He  had  not  a 
moment  to  lose.  While  Edward  still  struggled  against  the 
Welsh,  the  Marshall  of  France,  Raoul  de  Nesle,  invaded 
Agenais  and  Gascony,  and  sent  troops  into  Agen,  Bordeaux, 
and  Bayonne. 

On  his  side  Edward  acted  with  all  possible  care.  He 
equipped  a  fleet  and  an  army.  In  Aquitaine  he  could  count 
on  the  popular  party — that  is  to  say,  on  the  trade  corporations 
and  on  the  lesser  nobility.  An  able  diplomacy,  well  provided 
with  money,  wasted  no  time  in  securing  him  a  powerful  bundle 
of  alliances  with  which  he  enclosed  France.  First  he  arms  his 
two  sons-in-law,  the  Duke  of  Brabant  and  the  Count  of  Bar, 
against  Philip  the  Fair  ;  then  the  King  of  Germany,  Adolph  of 
Nassau,  to  whom  he  gives  much  money,  in  consideration  of 
which  Adolph  declares  war  against  France,  31st  August  1294  ; 
then  the  Count  of  Holland,  the  Count  of  Gueldre,  the  Bishop  of 
Cologne,  the  Count  of  Juliers,  the  Count  of  Savoy,  an  important 
league  of  Free-County  lords.  The  corrosive  action  of  the  English 
gold  attacks  even  the  interior  of  the  French  realm.  Edward  I 
fails  in  the  case  of  the  Duke  of  Brittany — whose  fidelity  Philip 
the  Fair  recompenses  by  erecting  his  duchy  en  paierie — but  he 
succeeds  in  the  case  of  the  Count  of  Flanders. 

The  situation  was  the  same  in  Flanders  as  in  Aquitaine. 
The  King  of  France  exercised  there  the  rights  of  suzerainty, 
which  made  the  government  of  his  State  extremely  difficult  for 
the  lord  of  the  land.  Moreover,  the  Count  of  Flanders,  at  this 
time  Guy  de  Dampierre,  was  in  need  of  money.  He  was  a 
French  lord,  a  native  of  Champagne.  He  had  accompanied  Saint 
Louis  on  the  Crusade,  and  was  the  godfather  of  Philip  the  Fair. 
He  was  seventy  years  of  age,  with  a  long  white  beard,  and  he 
limped  because  his  heel  had  been  cut  in  an  expedition  against 
the  Dutch.  In  his  two  marriages  he  had  had  a  great  number  of 
children,  of  whom  sixteen  had  survived.  He  was  a  good  father. 
During  his  long  life  he  could  be  observed  occupied  incessantly 
in  procuring  good  establishments  for  his  numerous  progeny  ; 
and  he  threw  into  this  the  more  ardour  from  the  fact  that  he  had 
372 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


little  money  to  give  them.  He  was  in  a  lamentable  state  of 
poverty.  It  is  painful  to  see  this  feudal  knight  struggling 
without  intermission  in  the  crooked  fingers  of  Jewish  usurers, 
of  Cahorsins  or  Lombards.  He  owes  money  to  every  one,  to 
his  tailor,  to  his  wine  merchant  ;  he  borrows  from  all  comers, 
even  from  his  servants  ;  then,  on  the  day  of  reckoning,  his 
coffers  are  empty. 

But  behold,  one  fine  morning  the  King  of  England  offers  him 
much  money  and  a  marriage  beyond  his  hopes  for  the  little 
Philippine,  the  goddaughter  of  Philip  the  Fair.  Philippine 
would  espouse  the  eldest  son  and  heir  of  Edward.  One  day 
she  would  be  Queen  of  England.  The  old  Count  was  dazzled. 
He  knew  he  had  no  right,  as  a  French  peer,  to  conclude  such  an 
alliance  without  the  consent  of  his  suzerain.  He  also  knew  that 
at  Paris  this  consent  would  be  refused  :  England  was  in  a  state 
of  open  war  with  France.  Edward  I  reassured  him.  Was  not 
he,  King  of  England  and  Duke  of  Aquitaine,  there  to  defend  him 
against  all  attacks  ?  Moreover,  the  temptation  was  too  strong. 
On  31st  August  1294,  Guy  de  Dampierre  concluded  the  treaty  of 
Lierre  in  Brabant,  by  which  Philippine  of  Flanders  was  affianced 
to  the  heir  of  the  English  Crown. 

But  Philip  the  Fair  fought  his  neighbour  beyond  the  Channel 
with  his  own  weapons.  To  the  King  of  Germany,  Adolph  of 
Nassau,  he  sent  by  an  Italian  financier,  called  in  France  “  Mon¬ 
seigneur  Mouche,”  more  money  than  Edward  I  had  sent  him, 
to  such  purpose  that  Adolph,  after  having  declared  war 
against  France,  did  not  move.  And  the  Duke  of  Brabant,  seeing 
this,  did  not  move  either.  The  two  confederates  none  the  less 
kept  the  English  money.  To  the  Count  of  Savoy,  Philip  the 
Fair  opposes  his  hereditary  enemy,  the  Dauphin  of  Viennois  ; 
he  allies  himself  with  the  Count  Palatine  of  Burgundy,  Otto  IV. 
In  the  Italian  ports  he  recruits  entire  fleets — vessels,  soldiers,  and 
captains.  The  Genoese  and  Venetians  were  the  finest  seamen  of 
the  time.  He  sends  subsidies  to  the  Scots,  and  with  their  King, 
John  Balliol,  concluded  an  alliance,  the  exact  counterpart  of 
the  alliance  signed  between  Edward  I  and  Guy  of  Dampierre. 
He  assured  himself  of  the  active  support  of  Duke  Thibaud  of 
Lorraine,  of  the  valiant  Count  Henry  of  Luxemburg,  of  the 
Bishop  of  Cambrai,  of  the  Count  of  Hainault  ;  and  profiting  by 

373 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


the  antagonism  between  the  Dutch  and  Flemish,  detached  from 
the  English  alliance  Count  Florent  of  Holland  in  order  to  secure 
him  as  an  adherent  to  his  cause.  Finally,  we  should  note  the 
treaty  concluded  between  Eric,  King  of  Norway,  and  Philip  the 
Fair.  Eric  promised  to  put  at  the  disposal  of  France  a  fleet  of 
200  galleys,  “  long  vessels,  driven  by  sail  as  well  as  by  oars  ”  ; 
and  lastly  the  alliance  of  Philip  the  Fair  with  the  King  of 
Maj  orca. 

The  King  of  France  heard  of  the  pact  concluded  between  the 
King  of  England  and  the  Count  of  Flanders.  He  ordered  the 
latter  to  come  to  speak  with  him.  His  letters  were  dated  28th 
September  1294.  In  the  following  month  Guy  de  Dampierre  was 
at  Paris.  Philip  treated  his  vassal  very  harshly.  He  told  him 
that  by  the  fact  of  his  alliance  with  a  declared  enemy  he  had 
proved  himself  “  disloyal,”  and  he  ordered  him  to  have  his 
daughter  Philippine  brought  to  Paris  ;  and  commanded  that 
until  this  was  done  he  and  his  two  sons  who  had  accompanied 
him  should  be  imprisoned.  Shortly  afterwards,  the  little 
princess,  aged  seven  years,  was  at  the  Louvre,  where  from  this 
day  she  was  brought  up  under  the  eye  of  Philip’s  wife,  Jeanne 
de  Navarre,  with  the  royal  children  of  France.  Followed  by 
his  two  sons,  Guy  de  Dampierre  returned  home. 

The  war  between  France  and  England  had  taken  its  full 
course.  On  26th  October  1294  the  English  fleet  which  bore  the 
army  raised  for  the  reconquest  of  Aquitaine  made  its  entry  into 
the  Gironde.  At  Bayonne  the  popular  party  regained  control, 
put  to  flight  the  French  officers,  and  delivered  the  town  to  the 
English.  On  his  side  Philip  the  Fair  had  fitted  out  a  fleet  with 
Admiral  Mathieu  de  Montmorency  in  command.  It  appeared 
before  Dover  and  landed  there  15,000  men.  Edward  I  an¬ 
nounced  to  the  people  that  the  plan  of  the  King  of  France  was 
to  stamp  out  every  trace  of  the  English  language.  The  attempt 
miscarried  and  the  French  re-embarked  after  having  burned  a 
few  buildings  and  pillaged  several  convents. 

A  second  English  fleet  left  Portsmouth  on  15th  January 
1296.  It  ravaged  the  Ile  de  Rhé,  landed  in  Guienne,  took 
Blaye,  Bourg-sur-Mer,  did  not  dare  to  attack  Bordeaux,  where 
Raoul  de  Nesle  was  in  command,  and  went  as  far  as  La  Réole, 
where  also  the  popular  party  threw  open  the  gates  to  the  English. 
374 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


On  27th  April  1296,  Edward  I  achieved  a  great  success.  At 
Dunbar  he  crushed  the  Scottish  army,  and  on  10th  July  John 
Balliol,  the  King  of  Scotland,  was  forced  to  come  to  him  and  make 
his  submission.  But  by  this  time  the  King  of  France  had  raised 
a  second  army,  which  was  commanded  by  his  brother  Charles 
de  Valois.  This  army  marched  through  Aquitaine.  La  Réole 
was  retaken  and  the  heads  of  the  English  party  were 
hanged.  Edmund  of  Lancaster,  the  brother  of  Edward  I,  was 
beaten  and  took  refuge  in  Bayonne,  where  he  died  from  his 
wounds. 

Henry  de  Lacy,  Earl  of  Lincoln,  succeeded  Edmund  of  Lan¬ 
caster.  Philip  the  Fair  sent  against  him  the  prince,  who  had  the 
reputation  of  being  the  first  soldier  of  his  time,  Robert  II, 
Count  d’Artois.  The  adversaries  met  at  Bonnegarde,  in  Landes, 
and  in  a  decisive  engagement  the  English  were  routed.  Jean 
de  St.  Jean,  the  energetic  and  able  lieutenant  of  Edward  I  in 
Aquitaine,  was  among  the  prisoners.  The  falling  night  and  the 
neighbouring  forests  covered  the  flight  of  the  beaten  army,  of 
whom  not  one  would  have  escaped. 

Some  months  later,  the  same  Robert  d’Artois,  at  the  other 
end  of  France,  fought  a  battle  that  was  not  less  important.  The 
troops  of  the  Count  of  Flanders  and  of  the  German  princes, 
equipped  by  Edward’s  gold,  were  placed  under  the  command  of 
a  German  knight,  renowned  for  his  feats  of  arms — William  of 
Juliers,  the  elder.  This  army  was  the  sole  hope  of  Guy  de  Dam- 
pierre.  The  battle  was  fought  on  20th  August  1297  in  the  plain 
of  Furnes.  The  chroniclers  show  Robert  d’Artois,  on  his 
heavy  horse,  “  armed  with  a  fine  steel  jazeran  (coat  of  mail) 
and  a  high  gorgiere,  and,  over  these,  a  mantle  of  blue  satin, 
covered  with  golden  fleurs-de-lis.  In  front  of  him,  knights 
sounded  the  cornets  and  trumpets,  which  filled  the  air  with 
the  sound  of  their  fanfares.” 

The  victory  of  Robert  d’Artois  was  complete.  Guillaume 
of  Juliers,  the  elder,  was  among  the  prisoners,  mortally 
wounded. 

The  situation  of  the  old  Count  Guy  de  Dampierre  was 
desperate.  Betrayed  by  fortune,  feebly  assisted  by  the  King 
of  England,  on  the  point  of  being  abandoned  by  his  relatives, 
he  took  counsel  with  his  two  elder  sons,  Robert  de  Béthune 

375 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


and  Guillaume  de  Crèvecœur.  44  Then,”  writes  a  contemporary, 
44  they  were  disconcerted  because  money,  friends,  their  towns, 
and  every  help  began  to  fail  them.”  The  Count  had  no  longer 
any  refuge  except  the  mercy  of  the  King. 

Followed  by  his  two  eldest  sons  and  some  faithful  knights 
he  set  out  for  Paris. 

But  when  from  afar  he  saw  the  city  the  old  Count  Guy 
became  so  pensive  and  melancholy  44  that  when  one  spoke  to 
him  he  did  not  know  what  to  reply.” 

44  When  they  had  reached  the  perron,  in  the  great  court  of 
the  Palace  (now  the  Palais  de  Justice),  where  he  found  the  King, 
Guy  and  his  two  sons  dismounted,  and  they  climbed  the  steps 
to  the  top  with  the  Count  of  Savoy,  who  led  them  before  the 
King.”  ...  44  Then  they  threw  themselves  all  three  on  their 
knees  before  the  King  as  a  great  sign  of  humility  and  handed 
themselves  over  to  him,  recommending  themselves  to  his  good 
graces,  giving  themselves  entirely  to  his  noble  will.  The  King 
looked  at  them  well,  but  said  not  a  word  ;  and  so  sent  them 
away.  Then  were  they  wholly  abased  that  the  King  had  not 
spoken.” 

Philip  the  Fair  assigned  as  a  residence  for  Guy  de  Dampierre 
the  Château  of  Compiègne,  to  Robert  de  Béthune  that  of  Cliinon, 
and  to  Guillaume  de  Crèvecœur  that  of  Issoudun  in  Berry. 
The  tower  of  Compiègne,  in  which  Guy  de  Dampierre  was 
enclosed,  was  of  timber-work,  so  contrived  that  every  one  from 
outside  could  see  the  Count.  And  people  came  from  afar  to 
regard  the  captivity  of  the  rebellious  vassal  44  from  which  he 
often  suffered  so  much  shame  that  he  wished  he  was  dead,  and 
he  was  already  old  and  hoary.” 

In  the  monastery  of  Vyve-Saint-Bavon,  in  Flanders,  on 
9th  October  1297,  a  truce  was  concluded.  The  treaty  was 
founded  upon  the  principle  44  ki  tient  se  tiegne  ” — that  is  to  say, 
that  each  of  the  belligerents  should  continue  to  occupy,  until 
the  definite  peace,  the  territories  of  which  he  was  master  at  the 
moment  of  the  armistice.  As  the  arms  of  Robert  d’Artois  had 
just  put  Flanders  and  Aquitaine  into  the  hands  of  Philip  the 
Fair,  the  agreement  was  all  to  the  advantage  of  the  King  of 
France,  who  at  once  set  about  the  energetic  organization  of  the 
conquered  lands. 

376 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


The  truce  of  Vy  ve-Saint-Bavon  had  been  negotiated  through 
the  mediation  of  Pope  Boniface  VIII.  Benedetto  Gaetani, 

who  took  on  the  pontifical  throne  the  name  of 
SwordT°  Boniface  VIII,  had  been  elected  by  the  College  of 

Cardinals  on  24th  December  1294.  His  family 
was  of  Catalonian  origin,  but  it  had  settled  in  the  Volscian 
district  and  had  taken  rank  among  the  Italian  nobility. 

He  himself  was  born  at  Anagni  about  1217.  He  had 
pursued  his  studies  at  the  University  of  Paris,  where  he  had 
distinguished  himself  in  the  study  of  law.  Through  his  mother 
he  was  a  nephew  of  Pope  Alexander  IV.  His  family  connections 
and  a  great  capacity  for  affairs,  a  very  brilliant  mind,  gracious 
and  prepossessing  manners,  rapidly  assured  him  a  preponder¬ 
ating  place  at  the  Roman  Court.  He  was  charged  with  the 
management  of  the  pontifical  finances.  While  administering 
them  in  the  most  advantageous  manner  for  the  Holy  See, 
he  at  the  same  time  acquired  a  great  personal  fortune  and 
trebled  the  extent  of  his  inherited  territory  by  adding  to  it  the 
magnificent  fiefs  of  Selvamolle.  To  increase,  fortify,  make 
prosperous  and  flourishing  the  lands  which  constituted  his 
seigniorial  grandeur  and  that  of  his  family,  came  to  be  his  chief 
preoccupation.  He  was  distinctly  a  man  of  his  time.  Arable 
lands  came  to  be  added  to  arable  lands,  woods  to  vineyards, 
pasturages  to  gaignables,  fiefs  to  castles  ;  his  vassals,  clients, 
tenants,  increased  in  number  ;  his  keeps  were  full  of  armed  men. 

Boniface  VIII  ascended  the  throne  of  St.  Peter  at  the  age 
of  seventy-seven  years. 

The  study  of  antiquity  had  given  him  an  insight  into  other 
civilization  than  that  in  which  he  was  born.  He  had  realized 
the  beauty  of  the  religion  of  antiquity,  and,  from  this  admira¬ 
tion  for  a  cult  other  than  that  to  which  he  belonged,  he  had 
come  to  ponder  the  truth  of  dogma.  Dante  stigmatized 
the  numerous  atheists  who  existed  in  the  Italy  of  his  day. 
Between  these  fine  and  cultivated  sceptics  and  the  crude 
believers  represented  in  France  by  the  grandchildren  of  Saint 
Louis,  the  contrast  can  be  imagined. 

A  French  contemporary  of  Boniface  VIII  said  of  him  : 
“  He  was  learned,  wise,  and  subtle.”  He  was  worldly  and 
elegant.  He  took  pleasure  in  the  company  of  artists  and 

377 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


among  the  ladies  who,  after  the  fashion  of  the  time,  held  their 
courts  of  love.  He  liked  the  company,  too,  of  the  Italian  knights 
and  the  men-at-arms  who  garrisoned  his  castles  and  passed  their 
watches  in  reciting  Horace  and  Virgil.  His  air,  wrote  Ernest 
Renan,  was  more  that  of  a  knight  than  that  of  a  priest.  At 
this  date  bishops  still  led  armies.  The  charming  figure  of 
William  of  Juliers,  Archbishop  of  Cologne,  who  led  the  Flemish 
soldiers  to  victory  helps  us  to  understand  Boniface. 

They  both  had  the  fault  of  not  weighing  their  words.  Boni¬ 
face  forgot  that  a  Sovereign  Pontiff  could  no  longer  maintain 
the  attitude  with  which,  as  an  agreeable  monsignor,  he  had 
amused  the  Florentines.  He  despised  the  scandal  that  his  free 
and  worldly  airs  naturally  provoked.  An  elevated  character 
certainly,  but  in  it  was  mingled  a  certain  irresponsibility.  He 
furnished  his  palace  with  works  of  art  of  the  most  profane 
character.  He  had  his  image  carved  in  stone,  from  which  the 
French  concluded  that  he  wished  to  have  himself  adored.  He 
delighted  in  rendering  courteous  songs  which  he  had  made  in 
honour  of  the  ladies.  What  a  magnificent  prince  of  the  Church 
he  would  have  made  in  the  sixteenth  century  !  Moreover,  he 
excited  in  the  mind  of  Ernest  Renan  the  liveliest  admiration. 
Among  his  Italian  contemporaries  he  found  some  cultivated 
minds  who  understood  him  ;  but  in  what  stupefaction  was  he 
not  to  plunge  Philip  the  Fair,  simple,  rugged,  of  the  same 
grain  as  Saint  Louis. 

A  Cardinal  de  la  Pouille  reports  a  conversation  at  the  time 
of  Celestine  V  in  which  Gaetani  took  part.  Many  priests 
were  discussing  which  was  the  best  religion.  Gaetani  in¬ 
terposed  : 

“  What  are  religions  ?  Human  creations.  Is  there  any 
other  life  than  the  present  ?  The  universe  had  no  beginning 
and  it  will  have  no  end.” 

Of  Heaven  and  Hell  he  said  :  “Is  there  any  one  living  who 
ever  came  back  from  them  ?  ” 

It  is  obviously  necessary  to  allow  for  paradox,  the  desire 
to  shine.  The  faith  of  Gaetani  was  certainly  pure  and  profound, 
but  he  believed  it  necessary  to  bow  to  the  taste  of  the  Italian 
nobility,  in  which  one  loved  to  play  the  ready  wit. 

When  he  became  Pope,  Gaetani  checked  the  Inquisition  ; 

378 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


he  took  away  from  it  some  of  its  victims  and  made  it  release 
some  heretics.  We  see  in  this  his  best  title  to  honour.  The 
writings  of  Arnaud  de  Villeneuve  alarmed  some  strictly  pious 
souls  :  Boniface  VIII  protected  him.  He  loved  neither 
mystics,  hermits,  nor  mendicant  orders.  They  were  dangerous 
visionaries  in  his  view,  and  useless  parasites.  He  loved  energy, 
action,  life  broad  and  liberal.  Moreover,  he  found  monks  and 
hermits  dirty  and  evil  smelling. 

We  must  add  that  Cardinal  Gaetani  had  been  elected  Pope 
under  strange  circumstances.  On  5th  July  1294  the  choice 
of  the  Sacred  College  had  fallen  upon  a  hermit  of  Mount  Majella, 
a  reputed  Saint,  Celestine  V.  A  rustic  and  mystical  nature, 
the  brilliant  role  assigned  him  overwhelmed  him.  Hardly 
was  he  proclaimed  Sovereign  Pontiff  than  he  thought  of  return¬ 
ing  to  a  better  life — that  is  to  say,  to  his  cell  of  Sulmona. 
Gaetani  persuaded  him  to  abdicate,  which  he  did  on  13th 
December.  On  the  24th  of  the  same  month,  Benedetto  Gaetani 
was  elevated  to  the  Pontificate.  Boniface  VIII  gave  to  his 
consecration,  2nd  January  1295,  an  extraordinary  brilliance. 
The  King  of  Sicily  and  the  King  of  Hungary  marched  on  foot 
before  him  bare-headed  holding  the  bridle  of  his  horse. 

But  the  devout  ex-Pope  was  on  the  road  returning  to  his 
hermitage.  Boniface  VIII  reflected  that  it  was  not  prudent 
to  leave  this  feeble  spirit  in  the  hands  of  his  adversaries.  He 
had  the  old  hermit  pursued.  Celestine,  warned,  wished  to  fly, 
to  take  refuge  in  Greece  ;  but  Boniface’s  men  arrested  him  at 
the  moment  when  he  was  going  to  embark,  and  he  was  led  back 
to  Rome,  with  marks  of  profound  respect,  so  as  not  to  revolt  the 
people  who  followed  him  in  crowds,  snipping  off  pieces  of  his 
habit  and  pulling  out  the  hair  of  the  ass  on  which  he  was 
mounted.  At  Rome,  Boniface  VIII  received  his  predecessor 
with  the  greatest  respect  ;  and  with  the  greatest  respect  he 
caused  him  to  be  imprisoned  in  his  Castle  of  Fumone,  where 
Celestine  V  soon  died. 

Boniface  VIII  is  consumed  with  the  passion  to  dominate. 
Certainly  he  wishes  to  do  good  ;  but  he  only  understands  by 
this  his  own  greatness.  The  magnificent  dreams  of  Gregory 
VII  and  of  Innocent  III  were  revived  in  him,  exalted  by  his 
pride.  In  the  Roman  Campagna  he  made  the  might  of  his 

379 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

house  prevail.  He  wished  to  dominate  the  Kings  throughout 
Christendom. 

One  must  read  his  Bulls,  written  in  so  nervous  and  so  living 
a  style,  adorned  with  fine  Latin  expressions  and  sonorous 
periods  :  44  The  Roman  Pontiff  sits  on  the  throne  of  justice  : 
a  peaceable  judge,  he  dissipates  evil  by  the  movement  of  his 
thought.” 

The  man  who  wrote  these  lines  was  to  come  into  collision 
with  the  greatest  moral  power  of  his  time,  with  the  French 
monarchy  in  the  person  of  Philip  the  Fair. 

From  the  first  years  of  his  reign,  among  the  difficulties  of 
government,  the  young  sovereign  had  felt  keenly  the  embar¬ 
rassment  which  the  privileges  of  the  clergy  caused  him.  They 
claimed  to  be  answerable  only  to  the  ecclesiastical  tribunals, 
and  to  be  exempt  from  taxation  and  municipal  charges.  The 
Archbishop  of  Bordeaux,  who  was  one  day  to  be  Pope  under 
the  name  of  Clement  V,  refused  to  acknowledge  the  King  of 
France  as  suzerain.  A  number  of  monasteries  claimed  to 
depend  only  on  the  Roman  Court. 

Conflicts  of  jurisdiction  between  the  officers  of  the  King 
and  the  clergy  were  incessant.  From  the  beginning  of  his 
reign,  Nicholas  IV  held  himself  to  have  power  to  rebuke,  on 
this  subject,  the  young  King.  But  he  had  replied  in  a  style  in 
which  one  could  already  perceive  the  Prince  who  is  determined 
to  maintain  the  independence  of  his  crown  : 

44  Our  most  Holy  Father  without  doubt  took  pity  on 
our  youth  when  he  exposed  to  us  the  manner  in  which,  as 
has  been  told  him,  the  Church  of  Chartres  would  be  injured 
by  us.  .  .  . 

“  The  poor  vagrant  proved  a  good  prophet  in  saying  4  The 
exactions  of  the  clergy  will  cease  only  when  they  have  wearied 
the  goodwill  of  France.’  ” 

In  1294  broke  out  the  struggle  with  England.  Considerable 
resources  were  necessary.  Several  religious  orders  refused  to 
contribute  to  the  expenses  of  the  war.  The  Order  of  Citeaux 
appealed  on  the  matter  to  the  Roman  Court.  In  vain  the 
clergy  of  the  diocese  of  Reims  pointed  out  to  the  Sovereign 
Pontiff  that  in  lending  assistance  to  those  who  resisted  the 
royal  authority  he  was  causing  profound  trouble  in  the  realm. 
380 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


Boniface  VIII  judged  the  occasion  favourable  for  the  con¬ 
solidation  of  the  spiritual  power. 

In  order  to  make  the  situation  of  the  kingdom  perfectly 
clear,  Philip  the  Fair  sent  to  Rome  the  Prior  of  la  Chaise, 
Pierre  de  Paroi.  Paroi  spoke  at  length  with  Boniface  VIII, 
endeavouring  to  make  him  realize  the  inconveniences  of  his 
meddling  in  the  temporal  affairs  of  the  realm  of  France. 
Boniface  VIII  did  not  intend  to  give  way.  At  length,  the 
Prior  said  brusquely  : 

“  His  Holiness  ought  to  guard  himself  against  failing  in 
the  respect  which  is  due  a  monarch  so  august  as  the  King  of 
France,  since  His  Holiness  is  accused  of  professing  heretical 
doctrines  and  of  not  using  fitting  decency  in  his  conduct.” 

One  can  imagine  the  fury  of  Boniface  VIII.  These  were 
diplomatic  fashions  which  he  had  not  expected.  Pierre  de 
Paroi  has  described  the  scene.  In  reading  it  we  hear  the 
roaring  of  the  old  lion  : 

“  4  Who  said  that  to  you  ?  ’  cried  the  Pope. 

“  I  named  to  him  Philip,  the  son  of  the  Count  of  Artois,” 
tranquilly  goes  on  the  Prior  of  la  Chaise,  “  and  Monseigneur 
Jacques  de  St.  Pol,  because  he  could  do  nothing  against  them.” 

Boniface  VIII  could  command  himself  no  longer.  He 
shouted  : 

“  These  knights  are  donkeys.  Behold  the  pride  of  the 
French  !  Get  away,  thou  ribald  !  Evil  monk  !  God  confound 
me  if  I  do  not  destroy  the  pride  of  the  French  !  I  shall  dethrone 
the  King  of  France  !  All  the  other  Christian  kings  will  join 
me  against  him  !  ” 

The  decree  Clericis  laicos  was  dated  24th  February  1296. 
With  unusual  harshness,  Boniface  VIII  forbade  secular  princes 
to  levy  contributions  on  the  clergy  without  the  authorization 
of  the  Holy  See.  Philip  the  Fair  replied  on  17th  August  by 
the  ordinance  which  forbade  the  exportation  of  gold  and  silver 
beyond  the  realm.  This  was  to  dry  up,  by  checking  the  con¬ 
tributions  of  the  French  clergy,  an  important  source  of  the 
papal  revenues.  Philip  the  Fair  knew  the  old  Pope’s  passion 
for  gold,  that  thirst  for  gold  which  Dante  stigmatizes  in  his 
Inferno,  where  he  places  the  victim  of  Anagni  : 

“  Are  you  already  there,  Boniface,  are  you  already  there  ? 

381 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Are  you  yet  satisfied  with  those  riches  for  which  you  pros¬ 
tituted  the  Church  ?  ” 

The  Bull  Inejfabilis  amor ,  of  20th  September  1296,  in  which 
the  Sovereign  Pontiff  replies  to  the  ordinance  of  17th  August, 
is  a  masterpiece  of  irony.  It  distils  gall  ;  it  rends  in  its 
caresses.  In  reading  it  over,  the  old  Pope,  a  writer  by  birth 
and  a  good  Latinist,  must  have  been  proud  of  his  pen.  The 
ordinance  of  the  King  of  France,  said  he,  is  foolish  and  tyran¬ 
nical.  Has  he  dreamed  of  laying  rash  hands  on  the  interests 
of  the  Pope  and  cardinals  ?  And  that  at  a  moment  when  his 
realm  is  disturbed,  when  his  own  subjects  fall  away  from  him, 
when  the  Kings  of  Germany,  England,  and  Spain  are  preparing 
to  attack.  44  Unhappy  one,”  cried  he,  addressing  Philip  the 
Fair,  4 4  do  you  forget  that  without  the  help  of  the  Church  you 
could  not  resist  them  ?  What  is  to  happen  to  you  if,  after 
gravely  offending  the  Holy  See,  you  make  of  it  the  ally  of  your 
enemies  and  your  chief  adversary  ?  ” 

These  were  not  vain  threats.  But  Philip  the  Fair  stood 
fast,  and  replied  by  the  pen  of  Pierre  Flote. 

It  was  in  reply  to  the  Bull  Inejfabilis  amor  that  Flote  pro¬ 
duced  the  admirable  protest  which  affirmed  the  independence 
of  the  crown  of  France,  and  is  designated  in  history  by  its 
opening  words,  Antequam  essent  clerici  .  .  . 

44  Before  there  were  any  clergy,  the  King  of  France  had 
the  care  of  his  realm,  and  he  framed  for  it  certain  rules  in  order 
to  protect  it  against  its  enemies.  .  .  .  The  very  privileges  of 
the  clergy  only  exist  by  the  permission  of  the  secular  princes. 
And  these  privileges,  whatever  they  may  be,  cannot  prejudice 
the  task,  which  is  incumbent  on  kings,  of  ruling  and  defending 
their  realms.  .  .  . 

44  The  Lord  said  :  4  Render  to  Cæsar  the  things  that  are 
Cæsar’s.  .  .  .’  The  enemy  has  invaded  the  land  and  the 
clergy  have  not  paid  any  contribution  to  those  whose  duty 
it  is  to  protect  them  and  their  goods.  .  .  .  The  Pope  goes  even 
further  :  he  forbids  the  clergy  to  pay  subsidies  to  the  King.  .  .  . 
So  that  although  it  would  be  lawful  to  the  clergy  to  give  money 
to  actors  and  to  women,  to  keep  off  the  poor,  to  squander 
money  on  ornaments,  on  cavalcades  and  in  feasts,  these  clerics, 
enriched,  grown  fat,  and  stuffed  by  the  devotion  of  princes, 
382 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


would  be  forbidden  to  lend  help  to  the  same  princes  against 
unjust  aggressors  !  ” 

To  threats  Philip  the  Fair  replies  by  threats  : 

“  Beware  !  Beware  !  To  speak  like  this  is  to  lend  assistance 
to  the  enemies  of  the  Crown  ;  it  is  to  commit  the  crime  of 
lèse -majesté." 

The  controversy  began  on  such  a  plane  that  already  one 
expects  to  see  the  conflict  break  out  violently  ;  but,  behold, 
Boniface  suddenly  gives  way.  A  Bull  of  31st  July  1297 
permits  the  clergy  to  pay  subsidies  to  the  Crown. 

The  Pope  was  in  the  throes  of  a  grave  difficulty.  He  had 
on  his  hands  two  “  crusades,”  one  against  the  Aragonese  of 
Sicily,  the  other  against  the  Colonna  family.  The  latter  were 
one  of  the  great  feudal  houses,  which  in  thirteenth-century 
Italy  had  come  to  form  veritable  small  States.  Two  of  the 
Colonna,  James  and  his  nephew  Peter,  were  members  of  the 
Sacred  College.  They  had  voted  for  Benedetto  Gaetani,  for 
the  Gaetani  family  had  for  some  years  been  a  dependant  of 
the  Colonna  family.  Once  he  had  ascended  the  pontifical 
throne,  Boniface  intended  to  modify  the  respective  positions 
of  the  two  “  Houses.”  The  Gaetani  were  overwhelmed  with 
gifts,  with  dignities,  with  favours.  The  conflict  broke  out 
sharply  when  Peter  Gaetani,  promoted  Count  of  Caserta,  bought 
the  lands  of  the  Annibaldi,  in  the  Maritime  Province — lands 
which  for  many  years  the  Colonna  had  coveted.  And  hence 
between  the  Colonna  and  Gaetani  one  of  those  family  strifes — 
like  that  of  the  Montagues  and  Capulets — which  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  particularly  the  Middle  Ages  in  Italy,  knew  so  well. 
The  Colonna  Cardinals  go  about  repeating  that  Boniface  was 
not  elected  Pope  in  a  regular  manner.  He  cites  them  to 
appear  before  the  Sacred  College.  The  two  Cardinals  judge  it 
more  prudent  to  take  refuge  in  their  castle  of  Longuezza. 
They  are  declared  heretics,  schismatics,  blasphemers  ;  they 
are  excommunicated.  The  places  where  they  shall  go  to  live 
are  placed  under  an  interdict.  They  are  declared  incapable 
of  exercising  any  office,  of  making  a  will,  of  performing  any 
public  act,  themselves,  their  relatives,  and  their  descendants 
to  the  fourth  generation. 

Peter  had  five  brothers — John,  Eude,  Agapet,  Stephen,  and 

383 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


James  known  as  Sciarra,  all  soldiers.  Stephen  made  an  ambush 
on  the  Appian  Way  and  carried  off  the  pontifical  treasure  which 
was  being  transported  from  Anagni,  where  the  paternal  house 
of  Boniface  VIII  was,  to  Rome.  Most  of  the  noble  families 
of  the  Roman  Campagna  were  jealous  of  the  rapid  growth  of 
the  Gaetani.  The  Colonna  gathered  partisans  round  them. 
Rut  they  were  defeated  by  the  Pope’s  adherents.  Sciarra 
Colonna  heroically  defended  Palestrina,  the  last  foothold  of 
his  family.  The  town  was  taken.  With  a  fine  gesture,  inspired 
by  the  ancient  world,  Boniface  VIII  had  it  rased  to  the  ground, 
and  the  ruins  sown  with  salt — “  as  the  Romans,”  he  said  himself, 
“  had  done  to  Carthage.” 

Sciarra  Colonna  escaped,  disguised  as  a  drover.  Pirates 
seized  him  and  put  him  in  chains.  For  four  years  he  was  a 
galley  slave  ;  he  rowed  at  the  bottom  of  the  keel  ;  the  bandits 
struck  him  with  leather  thongs.  He  would  not  disclose  his 
identity  for  fear  he  should  be  handed  over  to  Boniface.  At 
last,  when  the  galley  had  cast  anchor  in  view  of  Marseilles,  he 
made  himself  known.  His  cousin,  Egidio  Colonna,  Archbishop 
of  Bourges,  the  councillor  of  Philip  the  Fair,  had  him  ransomed 
by  the  King  of  France.  One  can  imagine  the  mountain  of 
hatred  that  had  grown  up  in  his  heart 

Egidio  Colonna,  better  known  under  the  name  of  Gilles 
de  Rome,  a  disciple  of  St.  Thomas,  himself  called  the  most 
profound  doctor,  a  commentator  on  Aristotle,  put  at  the 
disposition  of  his  family,  who  were  athirst  for  vengeance,  his 
high  situation  at  the  Court  of  France,  his  intellectual  gifts, 
and  his  authority. 

Papal  policy  never  ceased,  during  the  Middle  Ages,  to  foster 
the  division  between  the  Courts  of  France  and  Germany.  The 
German  Emperor,  King  of  the  Romans,  was  supported  in 
Italy  by  a  powerful  party,  the  Ghibellines.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  King  of  France  represented  the  greatest  power  of 
the  epoch.  His  religious  character  increased  his  authority. 
The  union  of  the  two  crowns  destroyed  the  temporal  influence 
of  the  Roman  Pontiff.  The  Popes  who  were  the  most  devoted 
to  the  Capetians,  those  who,  like  Clement  V,  appeared  to  be 
only  the  agents  of  the  King  of  France,  did  not  cease  to  pursue 
in  Germany  an  anti-French  policy.  This  is  no  reproach  to 
384 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


them.  The  policy  was  then  a  necessity  for  the  Popes,  above 
all  for  those  who,  like  Boniface  VIII,  wished  to  secure  to  the 
Roman  Crown  a  temporal  dominion. 

On  2nd  July  1298,  the  King  of  Germany,  Adolph  de  Nassau, 
who  was  the  ally  of  the  King  of  England  against  Philip  the 
Fair,  was  killed  at  the  battle  of  Gcelheim  by  his  competitor, 
Albert  of  Austria,  an  adherent  of  French  policy,  who  was  soon 
to  marry  a  sister  of  Philip  the  Fair.  Boniface  refuses  to 
ratify  the  election  of  Albert.  He  treats  him  as  a  murderer 
and  a  usurper,  and  excommunicates  him.  On  9th  December 
1299  there  takes  place  at  Vaucoulers,  near  Toul,  the  famous 
interview  between  the  Kings  of  France  and  Germany,  when  the 
two  sovereigns  make  their  alliance.  The  Flemish  ambassadors 
at  the  Roman  Court  have  described  the  fury  of  Boniface  VIII 
when  he  heard  of  the  event.  He  cried  out  before  the  cardinals, 
“  These  princes  wish  to  disturb  everything.” 

He  repeated  :  “  Yes,  the  King  of  France  takes  bad  advice.” 
At  one  moment  he  still  hopes  to  bring  round  Philip  the  Fair, 
and  he  presses  him  to  break  with  the  new  King  of  Germany  ; 
but  the  King  of  France  means  to  keep  his  powerful  ally. 

The  year  1800  closes  the  thirteenth  century.  On  this 
occasion  a  solemn  Jubilee  was  decreed  at  Rome.  Boniface 
VIII,  an  old  man  of  eighty-three  years,  was  beside  himself. 
He  had  himself  carried  in  the  streets  under  a  canopy  of  golden 
silk,  blessing  the  crowd  who  bowed  down  before  him.  In 
front  of  him  marched  a  herald  with  two  swords  :  representing 
the  one  the  temporal  and  the  other  the  spiritual  power.  Another 
herald-at-arms  cried,  “  O  Peter,  look  here  upon  thy  successor  ! 
O  Christ,  behold  Thy  Vicar  !”  To  the  ambassadors  of  Albert 
of  Austria,  who  demanded  that  he  should  recognize  their 
master  as  Emperor  of  Germany,  he  replies,  “  I  am  Cæsar  ! 
It  is  I  who  am  the  Emperor.”  He  forbids  the  Hungarians 
to  choose  a  King  ;  he  threatens  the  King  of  Naples  with 
anathema.  He  writes  to  the  Florentines  :  “  All  the  faithful, 
whoever  they  may  be,  should  bow  the  neck  to  the  orders  of 
the  Sovereign  Pontiff.” 

He  is  no  longer  master  of  his  characteristic  fits  of  passion. 
The  Archbishop  of  Genoa,  having  presented  himself  for  the 
ceremony  of  the  ashes  on  the  first  day  of  Lent,  Boniface  threw 

2  B  385 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


the  vase  full  of  ashes  in  his  face.  “  Remember  that  you  are  a 
Ghibelline  ”  (a  partisan  of  the  Imperial  dominance  in  Italy), 
he  cried,  44  and  that  with  all  the  Ghibellines  you  will  return 
to  dust.”  On  another  occasion,  when  one  of  the  ambassadors 
of  the  King  of  Germany,  the  sub-prior  of  the  Strasbourg 
Dominicans,  bowed  before  him  in  order  to  kiss  his  toe,  the  Pope 
gave  him  so  vigorous  a  kick  in  the  face  that  he  made  it  bleed. 

It  was  at  this  moment  that  Philip  the  Fair,  still  anxious  for 
conciliation,  sent  to  Rome  as  ambassador  one  of  his  favourite 
legists,  Guillaume  de  Nogaret,  in  order  to  make  the  character 
and  necessities  of  his  policy  understood  there.  Nogaret  ap¬ 
peared  with  a  brilliant  equipage  before  the  Sovereign  Pontiff. 
He  endeavoured  to  show  in  detail  that  the  alliance  concluded 
between  the  Kings  of  France  and  Germany  had  no  other  object 
than  peace,  the  good  of  the  Church,  and  finally  the  crusade 
beyond  the  seas,  the  constant  aim  of  the  Roman  Pontiffs. 
Boniface  VIII  would  hear  nothing.  Albert  of  Austria  was  a 
usurper,  and  excommunicated  ;  as  to  the  King  of  France,  the 
Pope  uttered  insults  and  threats. 

Then  Nogaret  considered  44  the  wickedness  of  the  Roman 
Pontiff  and  the  affliction  of  the  Church  of  France  which  he 
devoured.”  These  are  his  expressions.  He  took  him  privately, 
he  says,  and  counselled  him  to  amend  his  ways.  He  reminded 
him  that  he  was  heretical,  simoniacal,  a  thief  and  an  assassin, 
and  that  he  had  horrible  vices  ;  and  that  all  this  was  notorious. 
Nogaret — we  are  following  his  own  account — says  all  this  to  the 
Sovereign  Pontiff  44  very  humbly,  entreating  him  deferentially, 
to  look  to  his  reputation  and  to  spare  the  Church  and  the  realm 
of  France.” 

Boniface  demanded  if,  in  France,  the  ambassadors  were  not 
chosen  from  fools.  He  defied  Nogaret  to  repeat  his  discourse 
in  public.  But  when  numerous  witnesses  were  introduced, 
Nogaret  repeated  his  accusations. 

44  Do  you  speak  in  your  own  name  or  in  that  of  your  master  ?  ” 

44  I  replied,”  writes  Nogaret,  44  that  I  had  said  all  this  on  my 
own  authority,  inspired  by  my  zeal  for  the  faith  in  view  of  the 
miserable  condition  to  which  the  Church  of  France  had  been 
reduced,  which  had  been  placed  under  the  patronage  of  the 
King.” 

386 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


44  At  these  words,”  says  our  ambassador,  “Boniface  be¬ 
haved  like  a  madman.  He  uttered  frightful  threats,  insults, 
blasphemies  which,  for  the  love  of  Christ,  I  listened  to  patiently. 
Yet  I  wept  for  the  Church  of  Rome,  I  wept  for  the  Church  of  the 
Gauls.  I  continued  for  some  days  to  argue  with  him,  but  in 
vain.  On  my  return  to  my  master,  I  gave  him  an  account  of 
what  had  passed,  asking  him  to  defend  the  Church  ;  but  he, 
as  a  pious  son,  averted  his  eyes  from  these  scandals.” 

This  Guillaume  de  Nogaret,  though  not  possessed  of  the 
capacity  of  a  Pierre  Flote,  was  nevertheless  one  of  the  most 
useful  assistants  of  Philip  the  Fair.  In  the  hands  of  the  King 
he  proved  a  marvellous  instrument.  He  was  born  at  St.  Felix  de 
Carmaing  in  Haute-Garonne.  In  1291  he  was  professor  of  Law 
at  Montpellier  ;  in  1294  he  was  Chief  Justice  in  the  Seneschal’s 
jurisdiction  of  Beaucaire.  In  1296  he  entered  the  council  of 
the  King.  The  registers  of  the  Olim  make  him  a  clerk,  but 
oftener  he  is  called  44  Knight  ”  and  44  venerable  professor  of 
laws.”  The  King  had  made  him  Lord  of  Cauvisson  and  of  Mas- 
sillargues.  He  married  his  daughter  Guillemette  to  Guillaume 
de  Clermont-Lodève.  The  Marshall  of  France,  Mile  de  Noyers, 
wrote  to  him  familiarly  as  44  my  dear  friend,  Monseigneur  de 
Nogaret.”  His  activity  ranges  over  the  most  various  spheres  : 
he  organizes  the  Crown  archives,  has  a  hand  in  making  the 
Seine  navigable,  and  settles  the  financial  questions  raised  by 
the  Flemish  campaigns. 

He  was  an  ardent  patriot.  He  said,  44  I  think  that  had  I 
killed  my  own  father  if  he  attacked  my  country,  all  the  ancient 
authors  are  agreed  on  this  point  that  it  could  not  be  urged 
against  me  as  a  crime.  I  should  deserve,  on  the  contrary,  to 
be  praised  for  it  as  an  act  of  virtue.”  Danton  could  not  have 
said  more. 

The  celebrated  Bull  Ausculta  fili  (Hear,  O  my  son  !),  ad¬ 
dressed  by  Boniface  VIII  to  Philip  the  Fair,  was  dated  on  5th 
December  1301.  Written  in  a  nervous,  incisive  style,  with  a 
strong  vein  of  restrained  irony,  it  was  bound  to  wound  Philip 
profoundly  : 

44  Hear,  O  dearest  son,  the  warnings  of  a  father,  and  open  thy 
heart  to  the  exhortation  of  the  master  who  holds  on  earth  the 
place  of  Him  who  alone  is  Master  and  Lord.  .  .  .  Oh,  well- 

387 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


beloved  son,  do  not  allow  thyself  to  be  persuaded  by  any  one 
that  thou  hast  no  superior  and  that  thou  art  not  subordinate  to 
him  who  is  placed  at  the  summit  of  the  ecclesiastical  hierarchy.” 
The  King  of  France,  Boniface  went  on  to  say,  grinds  the 
churches,  oppresses  the  nobles  and  commons,  scandalizes  the 
people.  The  counsel  which  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  has  not  ceased 
to  give  him  has  remained  without  effect.  The  King  of  France 
falls  from  sin  to  sin,  and  sin  has  become  a  habit  with  him.  He 
makes  himself  the  judge  of  Churchmen,  takes  possession  of  their 
property,  levies  taxes  upon  the  clergy,  oppresses  the  Church  of 
Lyons  although  it  is  situated  outside  his  realm  (Philip  the  Fair 
was  attempting  at  this  date  to  compel  Lyons  to  re-enter  the 
dominion  of  the  Crown).  Boniface  reproaches  the  King  even  on 
his  financial  administration  and  for  changing  the  currency. 
The  Bull  ended  by  announcing  the  approaching  convocation  of 
a  General  Council  at  which  the  King  will  be  judged. 

One  anecdote,  among  many  others,  indicates  the  irritation 
into  which  this  Bull  threw  the  King  of  France.  On  23rd 
February  1302,  in  an  assembly  of  the  great  personages  of  the 
kingdom,  Philip  the  Fair  declared  to  his  three  sons  that  if  it 
should  ever  happen  to  them  to  be  so  weak  as  to  admit  that  the 
King  of  France  held  his  crown  of  any  other  than  God,  they 
should  consider  themselves  as  under  his  curse. 

The  thesis  of  Philip  the  Fair  was  brilliantly  taken  up,  on 
10th  April  1302,  by  the  Chancellor  Pierre  Flote  speaking  to  the 
delegates  of  the  three  orders  of  the  kingdom,  assembled  in 
the  Church  of  Notre  Dame.  We  know  from  Geoffroi  de  Paris 
that  the  Chancellor’s  address  produced  profound  emotion. 
And  when  the  speaker,  in  the  name  of  the  King,  appealed  to  the 
devotion  of  all  Frenchmen  to  defend  the  independence  of  the 
Crown,  prolonged  acclamations  filled  the  high  naves  of  the 
Church.  The  nobility  replied  by  the  voice  of  Robert  d’Artois, 
that  for  this  cause  they  were  ready  to  shed  their  blood.  The 
lawyer  Pierre  Dubois,  deputy  of  the  bailiwick  of  Coutances, 
spoke  in  the  same  sense  in  the  name  of  the  Commonalty.  The 
adhesion  of  the  clergy  was  given  under  a  less  forcible  form,  but 
it  was  none  the  less  formal.  Only  the  Bishop  of  Autun  and  the 
Abbot  of  Citeaux  refused  to  put  their  seals  to  the  foot  of  the 
protest  against  Boniface  VIII.  The  movement  was  so  strong 
388 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


that  the  act  of  protest  of  the  King  was  signed  not  only  by  all 
the  French  princes  present,  but  also  by  some  vassals  of  the  Holy 
Empire,  by  Ferry,  Duke  of  Lorraine,  by  Jean,  Count  of  Hainault 
and  of  Holland,  by  Count  Henri  of  Luxemburg,  by  Jean  of 
Châlon  Arlay,  and  even  by  Louis  de  Nevers,  grandson  of  the 
Count  of  Flanders. 

And  without  delay,  the  Commissioners  of  the  King  spread 
through  the  provinces.  They  went  two  by  two,  carrying  the 
copies  of  the  documents  relative  to  the  difference  between  the 
Pope  and  the  King. 

On  the  arrival  of  the  Commissioners  the  people  were  as¬ 
sembled  by  the  sound  of  bells,  or  by  the  blast  of  trumpets, 
sometimes  in  a  church,  sometimes  in  a  cemetery,  or  in  a  cloister 
garth,  or  on  the  market-place,  or  under  the  market  house.  At 
times  they  were  content  to  call  together  the  principal  townsmen 
in  the  consulate.  The  royal  Commissioners  addressed  the  most 
diverse  publics,  the  canons  of  cathedrals,  monks  in  their 
monasteries,  municipal  bodies,  and  tumultuous  gatherings  of  the 
people  in  public.  A  platform  was  erected  in  the  open  air.  The 
Commissioners  mounted  it,  read  their  documents,  and  delivered 
a  short  speech.  They  were  interrupted  by  cries,  44  Yes.  Yes.  I 
agree.  I  agree.  Long  live  the  King  !  ” 

At  length  special  envoys  set  out  for  Italy  with  letters  for 
the  Pope,  drawn  up,  some  in  the  name  of  the  clergy,  others  in 
the  name  of  the  noblesse  and  the  last  from  the  commons  of 
France.  In  a  different  tone  all  affirmed  the  independence  of 
the  French  Crown. 

The  Sovereign  Pontiff  received  the  delegates  on  24th  June 
1302  at  Anagni,  his  birthplace.  Boniface  VIII  took  the  high 
line.  He  called  Flote  Belial  and  Achitophel,  and  declared  that 
he  was  a  heretic.  Flote  was  blind  in  one  eye,  as  we  know,  which 
made  the  Pope  say  of  the  kingdom  of  France,  44  In  the  kingdom 
of  the  blind  the  one-eyed  are  Kings.”  The  Count  d’Artois  was 
also  called  Achitophel.  Coming  to  Philip  the  Fair,  Boniface 
declared  that  he  loved  him  much,  but  that  the  King  had  driven 
him  to  extremities.  44  We  know  the  secrets  of  his  kingdom,” 
he  added.  44  No  detail  is  concealed  from  us  ;  we  have  weighed 
all  its  activities.  We  know  what  the  Germans,  Burgundians; 
and  Languedocians  think  about  France.”  He  followed  with 

389 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


sustained  attention  the  efforts  of  the  English  Court,  which  still 
maintained  its  allies  in  arms  during  the  treaties  concluded  with 
France.  The  English  party  in  Aquitaine  grew  stronger.  “Our 
predecessors  have  deposed  three  Kings  of  France,”  concluded 
Boniface,  “  and,  although  we  are  unworthy  to  unlatch  the  shoes 
of  our  predecessors,  since  the  King  has  done  that  which  his 
ancestors  who  were  deposed  have  done — and  even  worse — we 
shall  depose  him  as  a  rascal  ( sicut  unum  garcionem ).” 

In  Flanders,  Boniface  found  some  unexpected  allies.  Philip 
the  Fair  had  given  the  Flemings  as  Governor  a  brave  knight, 
the  uncle  of  the  Queen,  Jacques  de  Châtillon,  Count  of  St.  Pol. 
Connected  with  the  nobles  of  the  country  and  imbued  with 
feudal  ideas,  he  governed  through  the  nobility  in  the  country 
and  in  the  towns  in  favour  of  the  Patricians. 

In  the  hope  that  the  King  of  France  would  deliver  them  from 
the  Patrician  tyranny;  the  popular  party  had  at  the  outset 
received  him  and  his  people  with  favour.  The  disappointment 
they  experienced  in  the  policy  of  Jacques  de  Châtillon  was  only 
the  stronger.  The  younger  sons  of  Gui  de  Dampierre,  of  whom 
the  youngest;  Gui  de  Namur;  above  all  was  filled  with  ardour  and 
intelligence,  re-entered  the  country.  The  workmen  found  an 
admirable  tribune,  a  powerful  voice  with  the  crowd,  in  the 
person  of  a  weaver  of  Bruges,  Pierre  Coninc.  The  author  of 
the  Chronique  Artésienne  sketches  him  in  a  few  lines  :  “  There 
was  at  this  time  at  Bruges,  a  man  called  Pierron  le  Roy  (Coninc 
in  Flemish  means  roi).  He  was  of  small  stature  and  of  poor 
lineage  and  a  weaver.  And  he  had  till  then  gained  his  livelihood 
by  weaving  and  had  never  had  so  much  as  ten  pounds,  nor  had 
any  of  his  line  ;  but  he  did  not  lack  words,  and  they  came  so 
easily  and  so  finely  that  it  was  a  great  marvel.  Moreover,  the 
weavers,  fullers,  and  cloth-workers  had  such  confidence  in  him 
and  such  affection  that  he  neither  said  nor  commanded  any¬ 
thing  that  was  not  done  on  the  moment.”  Coninc  was  sixty 
years  of  age. 

Having  found  in  Coninc  a  great  tribune,  the  Flemish  dis¬ 
covered  in  the  person  of  Guillaume  de  Juliers  the  younger  an 
admirable  captain.  He  was  the  younger  brother  of  Count 
Guillaume  de  Juliers  who  had  been  beaten  and  killed  at  Furnes 
by  Robert  d’Artois.  He  had  to  avenge  the  death  of  his  brother, 
390 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


and  he  was  the  grandson  of  the  old  Gui  de  Dampierre.  Guil¬ 
laume  de  Juliers  the  younger  was  also  called  Guillaume  le  Clerc, 
because  he  was  a  priest,  archdeacon  of  the  Church  of  Liège.  He 
was  still  little  more  than  a  child  and  of  a  very  delicate  con¬ 
stitution.  Naturally  lively  and  ardent,  his  glance  was  full  of 
fire  and  it  seemed  as  though  an  inward  flame  consumed  him. 
With  a  devouring  activity  he  was  impetuous,  rash,  stimulated  by 
obstacles  which  he  loved  to  find  in  his  way.  And  he  triumphed 
over  them  by  the  audacity  of  his  spirit.  On  his  arrival  in 
Bruges,  Guillaume  de  Juliers  declared  himself  the  lieutenant  of 
his  grandfather,  the  Count  of  Flanders,  and  placed  himself  at 
the  head  of  the  rebels.  To  the  rash  and  impulsive  character 
which  pleases  the  people,  to  the  youth  which  they  love,  to  the 
illustrious  nobility  which  flatters  them  when  it  bows  before 
them,  he  added  an  elegant  bearing  and  a  seductive  beauty. 
“  God  had  lavished  natural  gifts  upon  him,”  wrote  a  Chronicler 
of  Ghent.  “  He  was  young  and  handsome  and  full  of  spirit, 
eloquent,  and  of  powerful  understanding.”  “  He  was  only  a 
child,”  says  the  Dutch  Chronicler,  Louis  van  Velthem,  “  but,  O 
wonder  !  The  people  took  confidence  in  seeing  this  child  come 
from  the  East.  The  countries  blessed  God.”  Splendidly 
clothed,  and  bearing  on  his  shield  the  lion  of  the  house  of  Flanders, 
he  traversed  the  streets  of  Bruges  on  his  fiery  horse.  For  him, 
the  coffers  which  held  the  town’s  treasures  were  ever  open. 
The  finest  costumes,  rarearms,  bright-coloured  stuffs,  were  thrown 
at  his  feet  by  the  people,  mad  about  their  hero,  proud  of  his 
brilliance  as  if  it  were  their  own.  He  advanced  surrounded  by 
a  cortege  of  soldiers  and  priests,  musicians  and  girls  in  gay 
clothing.  He  kept  about  him  magicians  whose  rôle  was  to 
forecast  the  future.  Then  came  the  escort  of  horsemen  in 
armour,  of  Flemish  heralds  at  arms  ;  and  then,  always  pushing 
and  rough,  the  crowd  which  acclaimed  him. 

4 4  He  alone  was  obeyed,”  writes  the  Chronicler,  Guillaume 
Guiart,  “  and  he  became  master  over  all.”  One  saw  him  during 
many  years  draw  after  him  the  populace  of  the  great  towns, 
proud  of  its  outcries,  and  fall  on  the  field  of  battle,  weary  of 
carnage,  drunk  with  blood.  Then  he  was  made  Archbishop 
of  Cologne. 

On  18th  May  1302  the  Governor,  Jacques  de  Châtillon,  his 

391 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Councillors,  Pierre  Flote  and  the  Bishop  of  Auxerre,  who  lodged 
in  the  town  of  Bruges  with  a  sufficiently  great  number  of  French 
knights,  were  wakened  by  cries  in  the  middle  of  the  night. 
The  Chronicle  of  Flanders  says  agreeably  :  “  Soon  the  majority 
saw  that  there  would  be  great  plunder  and  that  these  hired 
Frenchmen,  who  were  full  of  gold  and  silver,  of  plates  and 
dishes,  of  jewels  and  good  horses,  were  as  good  dead  as  alive.” 

A  number  of  Frenchmen  were  killed  in  their  beds  ;  others 
succeeded  in  resuming  their  arms,  but  succumbed  to  numbers. 
From  the  high  windows  and  roofs  the  women  threw  on  the 
soldiers  who  were  fleeing,  plates  and  stools.  In  order  that 
the  people  of  Bruges  should  recognize  each  other  they  cried 
aloud  the  three  words,  “  Schild  ende  vriendt  ”  (“Shield  and 
friend.”)  Bad  pronunciation  betrayed  the  French.  Jacques  de 
Châtillon  and  Pierre  Flote  succeeded  in  escaping.  This  event, 
which  matched  the  Sicilian  Vespers,  is  known  under  the  name 
of  the  Bruges  Matins. 

In  order  to  avenge  those  of  his  subjects  who  had  perished  in 
this  ambuscade,  Philip  the  Fair  raised  an  important  army,  the 
command  of  which  he  confided  to  Robert  d’Artois,  the  victor 
of  Bonnegarde  and  of  Furnes.  “  In  this  company,”  says  the 
Chronicler,  “  one  could  see  all  the  flower  of  the  barons  and 
chivalry  of  France  ranged  in  splendid  battle  array.”  The  army 
of  the  Flemish  communes,  in  which  the  Bruges  contingents 
formed  the  majority,  was  commanded  by  Guillaume  de  Juliers. 
It  was  composed  entirely  of  infantry.  The  opposed  armies  met 
on  11th  July  1302  in  the  plain  of  Groeninghe,  under  the  walls 
of  Courtrai.  The  Flemish  who,  for  several  days,  had  occupied 
this  land,  watered  and  cut  by  creeks,  had  dug  in  it  ditches 
which  they  afterwards  covered  with  branches.  The  cross¬ 
bowmen  who  formed  the  first  line  of  the  French  army  opened 
the  attack.  The  Flemish  began  to  retreat  so  obviously 
that  Robert  d’Artois  thought  the  battle  won.  Wishing  to 
allow  the  Chivalry  to  take  part  in  the  honour  of  the  day,  he 
gave  the  order  to  the  infantry  to  fall  back  and  made  the  cavalry 
advance.  The  Flemish  continued  to  retreat.  Then  the  French 
Chivalry  charged  vehemently,  when,  suddenly,  the  charge  was 
transformed  into  a  frightful  jumble  of  horses  and  men,  dis¬ 
mounted  in  the  ditches,  in  which  splashed  a  liquid  mud.  The 
392 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


ranks  behind,  carried  on  by  their  impetus,  pushed  those  who 
were  in  front.  Embarrassed  by  their  iron  carapaces,  the  French 
knights  were  killed  without  being  able  to  defend  themselves. 
Almost  the  entire  royal  army  perished. 

“  And  the  Flamens,”  writes  the  picturesque  author  of  the 
ancient  Chronicles  of  Flanders,  “  the  Flemish,  who  saw  their 
enemies  in  such  peril  and  danger,  pressed  on  them  to  such  an 
extent  that  they  were  all  overturned  by  so  great  impetuosity 
that  all  were  killed  or  dead.  And  there  could  one  see  all  the 
French  noblesse  lying  in  the  deep  ditches,  mouths  yawning  wide, 
and  the  great  war-horses  feet  upwards  and  the  knights  below.” 
Only  the  rearguard,  commanded  by  the  Counts  of  Boulogne  and 
St.  Pol,  escaped.  They  took  to  flight.  The  beaten  army  ran 
terrified  along  the  road  to  Tournai.  “  Those  who  found  refuge 
in  the  town,”  writes  the  Abbé  Li  Muisis,  “  were  filled  with  terror, 
and  on  the  morrow  they  still  trembled  so  much  that  it  was 
impossible  for  them  to  eat  the  bread  that  was  offered  them.” 

For  the  King  of  France  the  disaster  was  irreparable.  His 
power  was  shaken  to  its  foundations,  and  his  efforts  were 
brought  to  nothing  at  the  moment  that  the  end  seemed 
certain  of  attainment. 

In  the  heart  of  the  Vatican  the  news  of  the  defeat  reached 
the  old  Pope,  Boniface  VIII,  late  at  night,  and  he  ordered  the 
procurator  of  the  Count  of  Flanders  at  the  Court  of  Rome,  the 
Abbot  Michel  As  Clokettes,  to  be  called.  And  the  Pontiff,  who 
had  leaped  from  his  bed,  hardly  took  the  time  to  clothe  himself 
in  order  to  hear  from  his  lips  the  narrative  of  the  battle. 

Philip  the  Fair  lost  at  Courtrai  his  most  useful  assistant 
and  the  Pope  his  most  redoubtable  adversary  :  the  one-eyed 
Chancellor  of  a  kingdom  of  the  blind,  Pierre  Flote,  was  killed 
there,  bravely  fighting  sword  in  hand. 

In  haste  the  King  of  France  equipped  a  new  army  and 
advanced  with  it  to  Vitry.  But  he  had  to  beat  a  retreat.  The 
contingents  from  his  own  communes,  composed  of  popular 
elements,  threatened  to  pass  over  to  the  camp  of  the  Flemish. 

The  embarrassment  of  the  King  was  increased  by  his 
financial  distress.  In  the  Middle  Ages  the  State  was  not 
organized  to  be  able  to  meet  the  sudden  calls  for  money  which 
the  necessity  of  putting  rapidly  in  motion  and  provisioning 

393 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


great  armies  summoned  to  the  frontiers  entailed.  Boniface 
VIII  saw  in  Courtrai  the  hand  of  God  and  doubted  no  longer 
that  the  moment  had  come  to  settle  the  domination  of  the 
Church.  On  18th  November  1302  was  published  the  Bull 
Unam  sanctam ,  which  caused  Boniface  to  be  called  by  the 
partisans  of  the  supremacy  of  the  Church  Boniface  the  Great. 
In  that  splendid  style  of  which  he  had  the  secret,  the  Pope 
addressed  himself  to  the  whole  of  Christendom.  The  Church 
has  only  one  body  and  one  head.  It  is  not  a  monster  with  two 
heads,  the  Pope  and  the  King  of  France.  Its  one  head  is  the 
Vicar  of  Christ.  There  are,  it  is  true,  two  swords — the  spiritual 
and  the  temporal  ;  but  these  two  swords  are  in  the  hands  of  the 
Pope.  Those  who  claim  that  the  temporal  sword  is  not  in  the 
hands  of  the  Pope  forget  that  Christ  said  to  Peter  when  he  had 
struck  off  the  Roman  soldier’s  ear,  “  Return  thy  sword  to  its 
scabbard.”  Kings  ought  then  only  to  make  use  of  the  temporal 
sword  for  the  Church  and  according  to  the  directions  of  the 
Pontiff,  which  they  are  bound  implicitly  to  obey  “  ad  nutum 
sacerdotis.” 

Boniface  went  so  far  as  to  say  that  he  would  rather  be  an 
ass  or  a  dog  than  a  Frenchman.  He  repeated  that  all  the  French 
would  be  damned  because  they  did  not  believe  in  the  temporal 
sovereignty  of  the  Pope.  The  Archives  of  England,  Belgium, 
and  Germany  preserve  traces  of  the  activity  that  the  old  Pope 
displayed  in  this  moment  to  urge  on  the  princes  allied  against 
Philip  the  Fair.  He  absolved  the  lords  of  the  Imperial  marches 
from  the  oaths  they  had  taken  to  the  Crown  of  France.  To 
strengthen  the  league  formed  by  the  King  of  England  he 
employed  the  money  which  had  been  sent  him  for  the  work 
of  the  Holy  Land.  He  said,  “  I  shall  quickly  make  martyrs 
or  apostates  of  all  the  French.” 

Some  notes  emanating  from  the  English  Chancery  suggest 
the  profound  trouble  that  the  papal  policy  spread  in  France  ; 
they  show  how  much  Philip  the  Fair  and  his  counsellors  dreaded 
the  sentences  of  excommunication  that  the  Pope  was  preparing 
to  launch  against  them.  The  excommunication  would  transform 
into  a  crusade  against  France  the  war  which  was  imminent  on 
the  expiry  of  the  truce  ;  the  King  of  England  and  his  allies 
would  draw  from  it  a  new  strength,  the  audacity  of  the  Flemish 
394 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 

would  increase,  the  English  party  would  see  its  forces  multiplied 
tenfold  by  it  ;  the  Languedocians,  who  in  their  hearts  still 
preserved  the  rancours  sown  by  the  war  with  the  Albigensians, 
would  find  in  it  a  powerful  motive  to  rebel  ;  the  leagues  of  the 
noblesse  of  Franche-Comté,  whom  the  Burgundians  and  the 
people  of  Champagne  were  beginning  to  join,  would  by  it  con¬ 
solidate  their  area  of  action.  Already  at  the  very  heart  of  the 
kingdom  did  not^  one  see  the  Archbishop  of  Tours  and  [his 
suffragans  refusing  to  pay  the  war  tithe. 

The  attitude  of  the  Pope  thus  placed  Philip  the  Fair  in  a 
position  in  which  it  was  impossible  to  retain  his  conquests, 
Aquitaine  retaken  from  the  Plantagenets.  “  Through  fear  of  the 
said  excommunication  and  interdict,”  we  read  in  the  English 
Chancery  Rolls,  “  the  King  of  France  was  compelled  to  come  to 
terms  with  the  King  of  England  and  to  restore  to  him  castles 
and  towns,  and  he  did  this  through  fear  of  the  said  sentences 
of  excommunication  and  interdict  and  of  seeing  them  put 
into  execution  by  crusade  or  by  aid  of  the  secular  arm.” 

Thus,  sick  at  heart,  Philip  the  Fair  was  constrained  to 
conclude  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  20th  May  1303.  He  restored 
Aquitaine,  for  which  the  King  of  England  once  again  recog¬ 
nized  himself  to  be  a  vassal  of  the  French  Crown.  Moreover, 
Edward  II  was  affianced  to  Isabella,  daughter  of  Philip  the  Fair. 
From  this  marriage  were  to  be  born  Edward  III  and  his  pre¬ 
tensions  to  the  Crown  of  France. 

One  knows  the  consequences  of  the  Treaty  of  Paris  without 
it  being  necessary  to  indicate  them.  A  century  and  a  half  of 
wars  and  sufferings,  those  frightful  times  that  one  includes  in 
the  name  of  the  Hundred  Years  War,  hardly  sufficed  to  efface 
them  ;  but  the  Papacy  which  had  launched  against  the  Capetian 
power  this  terrible  blow,  suffered  from  it  a  counter- blow  to  which 
it  almost  succumbed. 

Philip  the  Fair  saw  clearly  that  he  could  no  longer  avoid 
taking  the  offensive  in  order  to  save  himself  from  being  con¬ 
quered.  On  12th  March  1303,  in  an  assembly  of  the  grandees 
of  the  kingdom  at  the  Louvre,  Boniface  VIII  was  declared  a 
heretic.  The  King  of  France  appealed  to  an  immediate  Council 
to  depose  him.  On  the  following  24th  June,  in  the  royal 
garden,  at  the  centre  of  the  City,  the  crowd  pressed  on  to  the 

395 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


lawns.  A  procession  from  the  most  distant  provinces  of  arch¬ 
bishops  and  bishops,  abbots,  priors,  a  crowd  of  priests  and 
mendicant  friars,  and  a  numberless  multitude  of  the  people  had 
been  seen  arriving.  On  a  platform  were  the  King,  his  sons,  his 
two  brothers,  and  his  Councillors.  Near  them  was  standing  a 
clerk.  He  read  the  appeal  against  the  “  false  Pope.”  It  stated 
that  Boniface  VIII  was  a  materialist,  simoniacal,  that  he  prac¬ 
tised  sorcery,  that  he  had  sworn  to  destroy  the  kingdom  of 
France.  He  was  preparing  sentences  of  excommunication 
against  the  King  and  his  subjects.  The  King  hoped  that  all 
would  support  the  appeal  to  the  future  Council.  From  this 
point,  until  the  Council  met,  by  the  very  fact  of  the  appeal, 
the  acts  of  the  Pope  became  null  and  the  kingdom  of  France 
was  placed  directly  under  the  hand  of  God.  From  the  crowd  a 
thousand  voices  replied,  “Yes.  Yes.  -We  support  it.”  And 
the  notaries,  seated  in  black  robes  at  long  tables,  drew  up  the 
reports. 

These  scenes  were  renewed  in  every  locality  of  any  import¬ 
ance  throughout  France. 

But  speed  was  necessary.  The  thunders  of  the  Church 
might  break  out  at  any  moment.  Moreover,  for  the  action  that 
the  French  Court  proposed,  Italy  itself  should  offer  some  useful 
allies  :  the  turbulent  nobility  of  the  Roman  Campagna  whom 
Boniface’s  despotism  had  irritated  ;  the  dependants  of  the 
Colonna,  vanquished  but  not  reduced  ;  the  Florentines,  against 
whom  Boniface  had  armed  Charles  de  Valois  ;  the  Ghibellines, 
traditionally  hostile  to  the  Holy  See  ;  the  monks  and  mendicant 
orders,  who  increased  rapidly  and  were  contemned  by  Boniface  ; 
the  hermits,  venerated  by  the  crowd  ;  the  devout,  who  by  the 
mouth  of  holy  people  like  Jacopone  de  Todi  protested  against 
the  literary  fantasies  of  the  old  Pope.  The  Colonna  refugees 
in  France  kept  the  King  correctly  informed.  Nogaret  was  then 
charged  to  go  to  Italy  to  notify  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  of  the 
appeal  which  France  lodged  against  him  to  the  decisions  of 
an  immediate  Council  which  the  Pope  was  summoned  to  con¬ 
voke  without  delay.  Nogaret  took  as  assistant  the  Florentine 
banker,  “  Monseigneur  Mouche  ”  ;  a  legist,  Thierri  d’Hireçon  ; 
and  a  notary,  Jacques  de  Jasseines. 

The  Prior  of  la  Chaise,  Pierre  de  Paroi,  who  had  already  been 

396 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


in  Italy,  set  out  on  15th  August  to  overtake  and  support  the 
mission  of  Nogaret.  44  I  was,”  he  says  later,  44  to  inform  Boniface 
of  the  appeals  lodged  against  him.  If  I  could  not  have  secured 
access  to  him  I  was  to  publish  these  acts  in  Rome  and  have 
them  attached  to  the  doors  of  the  churches  in  Tuscany,  Lom¬ 
bardy,  and  Campania.  At  the  moment  that  I  received  these 
instructions,  one  of  the  great  prelates  of  the  Council  said  to  me 
in  the  presence  of  the  King  : 

44 4  Prior,  you  know  that  this  Boniface  is  an  evil  man, 
a  heretic  who  piles  up  scandals.  Kill  him.  I  take  all  the 
responsibility  on  myself.’ 

44  But  Philip  the  Fair,  putting  out  his  hand,  said  : 

4  4  4  No  !  No  !  It  would  displease  God.  The  Prior  will  do 
nothing  of  the  sort.’  ” 

Historians  think  that  Nogaret  and  his  companions  had 
been  commissioned  to  seize  the  Pope  at  Rome  and  to  bring 
him  back  prisoner  to  Lyons,  where  he  should  be  tried  by  the 
Council.  It  would  have  been  an  extravagant  enterprise. 
The  sole  purpose  of  the  King  and  of  his  councillors  was  to 
proclaim  as  regularly  and  solemnly  as  possible  the  appeal  to  a 
future  Council  against  the  acts  of  the  Pope,  so  as  to  nullify  the 
sentences  of  excommunication  which  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  was 
preparing  to  launch  against  Philip  the  Fair,  and  which  would 
have  the  consequences  already  set  forth. 

In  the  task  which  Nogaret  went  to  carry  out  he  acted  with 
complete  sincerity.  Only  a  convinced  man  could  have 
carried  through  to  the  end  the  duty  he  had  assumed.  44 1 
wept,”  he  will  say,  44  over  the  Church,  the  King,  and  my 
country.” 

Nogaret  and  his  companions  reached  Florentine  territory, 
where  they  lodged  in  a  castle  belonging  to  Monseigneur  Mouche. 
As  their  arrival  became  known,  and  their  mission  was  noised 
abroad,  partisans  came  to  them  in  a  crowd.  There  were  first 
the  Colonna  and  their  dependants  :  Jacopo  Colonna,  called 
Sciarra,  whom  Boniface  VIII  had  reduced  to  rowing  under 
the  leather  whips  of  pirates  ;  the  children  of  Giovanni  di 
Ceccano,  whose  father  had  been  kept  for  two  years  chained  in 
the  dungeon  of  a  strong  château  ;  and  lastly,  numerous  gentle¬ 
men  of  the  Roman  Campagna,  jealous  of  the  sudden  elevation 

397 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


of  the  Gaetani.  And  Monseigneur  Mouche  distributed  money 
with  open  hands. 

Nogaret  found  a  priceless  ally  in  Rinaldo  da  Lupino,  a  native 
of  Agnani,  like  Boniface,  and  captain  of  the  fortified  town  of 
Ferrentino,  distant  hardly  a  league  from  Anagni,  where  the 
Sovereign  Pontiff  lay.  Boniface  had  taken  from  Rinaldo  the 
Château  of  Trevi,  and,  outrageous  insult,  had  broken  off  the 
projected  marriage  between  Rinaldo’s  sister  and  his  nephew, 
Francesco  Gaetani,  because  he  wished  to  make  him  a  Cardinal. 
Rinaldo  assembled  300  horsemen  and  1500  footmen,  recruited 
for  the  most  part  in  the  districts  of  Anagni,  Alatri,  Ferrentino, 
and  Subri,  of  that  race  of  rude  countrymen  who  for  two  centuries 
had  been  producing  popes  and  condottieri. 

Nogaret  learned  that  Boniface  was  going  to  launch  the  inter¬ 
dict  against  the  King  of  France  on  8th  September,  the  Feast  of 
the  Nativity  of  Our  Lady,  from  the  height  of  that  chair  of 
Anagni  from  which  Frederick  I  had  been  excommunicated  by 
Alexander  III  and  Frederick  II  by  Gregory  IX. 

We  have  preserved  the  text  of  the  Bull  that  the  aged  Pope 
had  prepared,  the  Bull  Super  Petri  solio.  ...  It  bore  already 
the  date  8th  September,  and  began  thus  : 

44  On  the  seat  of  Peter,  from  the  elevation  of  a  lofty  throne, 
where  the  hand  of  God  has  placed  us,  we  occupy  the  place  of 
Him  to  whom  the  Father  said  :  4  Thou  art  my  Son,  I  have 
begotten  Thee  ;  ask  and  I  shall  give  Thee  the  nations  for  Thy 
inheritance,  and  Thy  domains  shall  extend  to  the  ends  of  the 
universe.  Rule  men  with  a  rod  of  iron,  break  them  like  potters’ 
vessels  !  .  .  .’  Words  which  form  a  warning  to  kings.”  In 
short,  the  Pope  excommunicated  the  King  of  France,  he 
absolved  his  subjects  from  the  oath  of  fidelity,  and  the  treaties 
signed  in  the  name  of  the  King  of  France  were  declared  null. 

Anagni  is  a  small  town  which  is  set  upon  an  elongated  plateau 
that  forms  one  of  the  last  buttresses  of  the  Hernici.  One  sees 
it  there  to-day  still,  on  the  height  dominating  the  plain  which 
is  bathed  by  the  warm  light  of  the  Roman  Campagna.  The 
Cathedral,  which  preserves  some  ancient  parts,  is  decorated  with 
a  statue  of  Boniface  VIII,  overlooking  the  square  which  it 
blesses  with  a  peaceable  gesture.  The  papal  palace  abutted 
on  the  Church  :  the  two  buildings  communicated  by  a  corridor, 
398 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


and  the  fortified  houses  of  the  Gaetani  pressed  all  round  like  a 
rampart  to  the  dwelling  of  the  Pope.  The  majority  of  them 
still  stand. 

Nogaret  had  not  a  minute  to  lose.  It  was  essential  to 
prevent  the  Pope  launching  the  interdict.  As  to  the  Pope,  he 
had  no  idea  of  imminent  peril. 

On  the  morning  of  7th  September,  the  vigil  of  the  Feast  of 
Our  Lady,  a  band  of  Italians,  600  horsemen  and  1000  armed 
ruffians,  commanded  by  Sciarra  Colonna,  preceded  by  two 
standards, — one  bearing  the  fleurs-de-lis,  and  the  other  the  arms 
of  the  Church, — poured  into  the  streets  of  the  little  town,  hardly 
yet  awake.  There  were  no  French  among  this  troop  except 
Nogaret  and  one  or  two  knights.  Thierri  d’Hireçon  and 
Jacques  de  Jasseines  had  themselves  abandoned  their  com¬ 
panion.  The  people  of  Anagni  took  the  part  of  the  assailants. 
To  the  cries  of  44  Death  to  Pope  Boniface,”  and  44  Long  live  the 
King  of  France,”  a  horde  of  madmen  threw  themselves  on  the 
papal  palace.  The  Marquis  Pietro  Gaetani,  assisted  by  his  son 
and  some  faithful  friends,  resisted  and  erected  barricades  ;  but 
their  houses  were  forced,  as  also  the  palaces  of  the  few  cardinals 
who  remained  faithful  to  the  Sovereign  Pontiff. 

Boniface  VIII,  terrified,  wished  to  negotiate.  What  did 
they  want  with  him  ? 

44  That  he  should  abdicate  like  Celestine  ;  that  he  should 
become  a  monk  and  shut  himself  up  in  the  cell  of  a  distant 
convent  !  ” 

The  old  man  of  eighty-six  years  recovered  his  energy  : 

44  Never.” 

The  papal  palace  was  fortified.  They  got  into  it  by  means 
of  the  adjoining  church  whose  doors  had  been  burned  down. 
The  clergy  in  their  albs  fled  like  a  flock  of  great  white  birds. 
The  floor  of  the  church  was  stained  with  blood  ;  they  threw 
down  there,  pierced  by  a  dagger,  the  Archbishop  of  Strigovie. 
Some  of  the  pontifical  servants  assisted  the  attackers,  who  flung 
themselves  into  the  dwelling  of  the  Pope  by  the  light  of  the 
crackling  flames.  Night  was  approaching  when  Boniface 
heard  shaking  about  him  the  last  doors.  Tears  fell  down  his 
cheeks.  He  said  to  two  clerics  remaining  at  his  side  : 

44  I  am  betrayed  like  Jesus  Christ.  I  wish  to  die  as  a  Pope.” 

399 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


He  assumes  the  cope  of  St.  Peter  and  puts  on  his  head  the 
tiara  of  three  rows,  the  triregnum ,  shining  with  gold  and  precious 
stones.  With  him  remained  two  cardinals,  Nicolas  Boccasini 
(who  succeeded  him  under  the  name  of  Benedict  XI),  and  Peter 
of  Spain,  Bishop  of  Salerno. 

The  Pope  fixed  his  eyes  on  the  oaken  door,  which  suddenly, 
under  the  pressure  of  the  assailants,  flies  into  splinters.  The 
first  to  appear  is  Sciarra  Colonna,  with  bloodshot  eyes.  He 
shouted  out  insults,  and  uttered  violent  threats.  Behind  him 
was  Nogaret,  calm  and  grave.  The  44  venerable  professor  of 
laws  ”  saw  in  all  this  only  a  legal  process.  The  planks  of  the 
roof  fell  with  a  crash  ;  cries  were  heard  and  already  the  disputes 
over  pillage,  the  noise  made  by  the  arms  in  forcing  the 
coffers  of  the  pontifical  treasure.  The  golden  vases,  falling 
on  the  flagstones,  sounded  like  bells.  Standing  by  the  banner 
of  the  fleur-de-lis,  Nogaret  explained  to  Boniface  VIII  his 
purpose.  He  spoke  precisely  and  distinctly.  He  explained 
how  44  he,  Boniface,  was  accused  of  heresy,  and  that  not  having 
advanced  a  defence,  he  was  reputed  convicted,  in  conformity 
with  the  laws  of  the  Church  ;  that  he  summoned  him  to  appear 
at  Lyons,  before  an  oecumenical  council,  at  which  he  would  be 
deposed,  seeing  that  his  guilt  was  notorious,  as  a  heretic  and 
simoniac.” 

But  the  uproar  was  redoubled.  Boniface  stared  into  space 
with  a  stupid  air  ;  his  hands  were  trembling.  Nogaret  went  on  : 

44  However,  as  it  is  necessary  that  you  should  be  declared 
guilty  by  the  judgment  of  the  Church,  I  wish  to  preserve  your 
life  from  the  violence  of  your  enemies  and  to  present  you  to 
the  General  Council,  which  I  require  you  to  convoke.  If  you 
refuse  to  submit  to  its  judgment,  it  will  function  in  spite  of  you, 
especially  as  it  is  a  case  of  heresy.  I  insist  on  preventing  you 
also  from  exciting  scandal  in  the  Church,  particularly  against 
the  King  of  France.  For  these  reasons  I  hand  you  over  to 
the  custody  of  guards  for  the  defence  of  the  faith  and  the 
interests  of  the  Church  ;  not  to  insult  you  nor  for  any  other 
reason.” 

While  Nogaret  was  speaking,  Sciarra  was  boiling  with  im¬ 
patience.  He  thought  that  the  legist  was  going  to  speak  for 
ever.  The  discourse  led  nowhere.  The  only  thing  necessary 
400 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


to  do  was  to  put  a  sword  through  the  Pope’s  throat  and  all 
would  be  in  order. 

The  old  Pontiff  repeated,  his  arms  extended  in  the  form  of 
a  cross,  “  Behold  my  head  !  Behold  my  arms  !  ” 

The  plunder  of  the  magnificent  papal  treasure,  of  the 
Gaetani  palace  and  of  the  houses  of  the  cardinals  favour¬ 
able  to  Boniface,  went  on  energetically.  It  was  this  that  the 
Italians  who  had  followed  Nogaret  considered  the  most  im¬ 
portant  feature  of  the  adventure.  Nogaret  allocated  guards 
to  the  old  Pope,  who  protected  him  and  shut  him  up  in  a  room  : 
“  an  action  that  saved  his  life,”  he  will  say  later.  He  insisted 
that  only  the  Pope’s  own  servants  should  be  authorized  to 
prepare  his  meals.  He  permitted  the  cardinals  to  withdraw  to 
Péronne. 

Some  surprise  has  been  caused  by  the  inaction  of  Nogaret 
on  the  following  day,  7th  September.  The  reason  is  that  he 
had  been  involved  in  the  expedition  to  Anagni  in  spite  of 
himself,  from  the  necessity  in  which  he  found  himself  of  pre¬ 
venting  at  all  costs  the  publication  of  the  letters  of  interdict 
of  which  he  had  suddenly  learned  the  imminence.  The 
Colonna  and  the  nobles  of  Anagni,  enemies  of  the  Gaetani, 
wished  to  keep  Boniface  VIII  in  their  hands  ;  Nogaret  would 
have  preferred  to  remove  him  to  France.  But  how  could  he 
transport  a  Pope  prisoner,  across  the  whole  of  Italy,  in  the 
company  of  only  three  men — a  banker,  a  notary,  and  a  cleric  ? 

The  people  of  Anagni  recovered  themselves.  Rome  was 
moved  with  lively  emotion.  Jealousy  against  the  French 
woke  up  ;  it  was  thought  that  if  they  were  allowed  to  remove 
the  Pope  to  France,  neither  he  nor  his  successors  would  return 
there  :  fears  sufficiently  justified.  Four  hundred  Roman 
horsemen,  led  by  the  Cardinal  Matteo  of  Aqua  Sparta,  marched 
upon  Anagni.  When  they  arrived,  Nogaret  had  left. 

Boniface  was  brought  to  Rome.  He  presented  himself  at 
St.  Peter’s  in  sumptuous  apparel.  He  ran  over  in  his  mind 
great  plans  to  avenge  himself  against  the  King  of  France.  But 
he  had  been  profoundly  injured.  He  was  stifled  with  rage, 
his  mind  was  unbalanced.  He  no  longer  spoke,  looking  before 
him  with  a  fixed  and  sombre  stare.  Flis  servants,  on  entering 
his  room,  found  him  doubled  up,  his  eyes  haggard,  his  teeth 

2  c  401 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


buried  in  his  fists.  In  this  state  he  died  on  11th  October  1303, 
aged  eighty-six  years. 

On  21st  October,  Nicholas  Boccasini,  one  of  the  two  prelates 
who  had  been  with  the  old  Pontiff  at  Anagni  on  the  terrible 
day  of  7th  September,  was  elected  pope.  He  took  the  name  of 
Benedict  XI.  Benedict  was  the  baptismal  name  of  Boniface 
VIII.  He  was  an  old  man,  gentle  and  timid,  who  feared  to 
take  any  action.  The  great  majesty  of  Philip  the  Fair  over¬ 
awed  him.  On  10th  February  1304,  Nogaret  was  to  return 
to  Beziers,  where  he  rejoined  his  master.  A  Bull  of  13th  May 
1304  annulled  all  the  sentences  which  the  Holy  See  had  launched 
against  the  King  of  France  or  his  counsellors.  The  King  was 
victorious. 

Yet  Philip  the  Fair  strained  his  efforts  to  put  an  end  to  the 
struggle  with  the  Flemish,  which  threatened  to  drag  on  for 
ever.  He  put  himself  in  person  at  the  head  of  his  army.  The 
opposed  forces  met  on  the  18th  August  1304  in  the  plain  of 
Mons-en-Pévele.  The  Flemish  were  on  this  occasion  still 
commanded  by  Guillaume  de  Juliers,  elected  Archbishop  of 
Cologne.  The  King  disposed  of  60,000  men  ;  the  Flemish 
army  amounted  to  about  80,000  men. 

In  the  middle  of  the  action,  the  French  cavalry,  suddenly 
seized  with  panic,  broke.  The  battle  would  have  been  lost 
but  for  the  coolness  of  the  King,  who  stood  firm  against  the 
Flemish.  At  his  side,  Anselme  de  Chevreuse,  who  held  the 
oriflamme,  and  Brun  de  Verneuil,  who  led  the  King’s  horse 
by  the  bridle,  were  killed.  The  King  was  himself  unhorsed  ; 
but  reseated  in  the  saddle  by  two  officials  of  his  house,  the 
brothers  Jacques  and  Pierre  Gentien,  he  threw  himself  on  the 
Flemish  ;  we  know  that  he  was  of  great  stature  and  of  a  singular 
physical  strength.  “  He  had  bones  bigger  than  beams,” 
writes  the  Templar  of  Tyr.  Then  the  Flemish,  we  read  in  the 
Anciennes  Chroniques  of  Flanders,  who  thought  they  had 
completely  won,  ran  upon  him.  “  The  noble  King  was 
mounted  on  a  tall  war-horse,  bearing  his  full  royal  arms,  and 
carried  a  great  iron  weapon  in  one  hand.  He  cried  4  Montjoye 
Saint  Denis  !  ’  his  weapon  performed  wonders,  for  those  whom 
he  struck  full  in  the  body  had  no  resource  but  the  doctor. 
Indeed,  he  performed  such  feats  of  arms  by  his  valour  that, 
402 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


by  his  own  body  and  own  enterprise  without  the  help  of  any  one 
else,  the  Flemish  might  have  this  day  been  discomfited.  For 
when  the  cavalry,  who  had  already  fallen  back,  perceived  the 
King  in  person,  who  had  advanced  and  wrought  so  much 
with  his  weapons,  they  recoiled  in  a  body  on  the  Flemish.  And 
then  began  once  more  a  violent  and  cruel  battle.  But  the 
Flemish,  who  all  this  day  had  been  struggling,  could  bear  no 
more  :  they  were  discomfited,  and  so  many  of  them  were  killed 
that  the  fields  were  littered  with  their  bodies.” 

Guillaume  de  Juliers  attempted  in  his  turn  to  rally  his 
forces,  but  the  Count  de  Boulogne,  by  an  opportune  manœuvre, 
surrounded  him  on  all  sides.  Juliers  and  his  faithful  men  of 
Bruges  were  exhausted.  The  heat  of  the  day  had  been  stifling. 
“  Then  the  Count  Guillaume  de  Juliers  took  off  his  boots  and 
all  his  people  with  him,  and  put  the  pommels  of  their  swords 
into  their  mouths  to  staunch  their  thirst  and  thus  waited  for 
death.”  A  French  soldier  cut  off  the  head  of  Guillaume  de 
Juliers  and  carried  it  stuck  on  a  pike  to  Philip  the  Fair,  who 
turned  away  his  eyes  from  it.  The  oriflamme  was  found  only 
on  the  morrow,  torn  into  two  parts.  In  commemoration  of 
his  victory,  Philip  the  Fair  caused  to  be  erected  an  equestrian 
statue,  representing  him  equipped  for  battle,  in  the  Church  of 
Notre  Dame.  It  could  still  be  seen  there  on  the  eve  of  the 
Revolution.  As  to  the  Flemish,  they  were  unable  to  believe 
in  the  death  of  their  hero,  Guillaume  de  Juliers.  For  long  years 
after  Mons-en-Pévele,  writes  the  Ghent  annalist,  it  was  told  in 
the  country  and  market  towns,  how  in  the  height  of  the  struggle 
an  invisible  hand  had  removed  Guillaume  de  Juliers  and  that 
one  day,  doubtless  near  at  hand,  in  the  hour  of  danger,  they 
would  see  him  again,  in  his  shining  armour,  at  the  head  of  the 
crafts  of  Bruges,  leading  them  to  victory. 

The  preceding  week,  the  French  fleet  had  won  a  striking 
victory  over  the  Flemish  fleet,  commanded  by  Gui  de  Namur 
in  the  Bay  of  Zierickzee  ;  Gui  de  Namur  perished  there. 
Peace  could  be  delayed  no  longer  :  it  was  concluded  at  Athis- 
sur-Orge  in  June  1305.  Philip  the  Fair  restored  to  Robert 
de  Béthune,  the  heir  of  Gui  de  Dampierre,  the  States  he  had 
confiscated  from  his  father,  but  retaining  French-speaking 
Flanders  :  Lille,  Douai,  and  Orchies. 


403 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


We  have  followed  up  to  this  point  only  a  part  of  the 
political  activity  of  Philip  the  Fair.  Witness  how  he  united 

to  the  French  Crown  the  town  of  Valenciennes, 
The  False-  the  çounty  Qf  ]3ar?  the  bishoprics  of  Toul 

onier.  an(j  0f  Verdun,  Viviers,  and  the  whole  of 

Franche-Comté. 

Benedict  XI  was  succeeded  on  5th  June  1305  by  a  French 
Pope,  the  Archbishop  of  Bordeaux,  Bertrand  de  Got,  who  took 
on  the  pontifical  throne  the  name  of  Clement  V  and  transferred 
the  seat  of  the  Papacy  to  France.  On  all  sides  Philip  the 
Fair  strengthened  French  influence. 

For  this  vast  and  complex  work,  and  for  the  organization 
of  the  kingdom,  he  required  financial  resources. 

In  a  century  and  a  half  the  expenses  of  the  monarchy  had 
been  tripled,  but  the  sources  of  the  revenues  of  which  the 
King  disposed  had  remained  the  same.  If  the  King  wished  to 
levy  some  new  contribution  what  outcries  there  were  !  The 
clergy  appeal  to  the  Pope,  the  nobles  form  a  league,  in  the 
towns  popular  risings  break  out.  In  1306  in  Paris  the  life  of 
the  King  is  even  in  danger  :  he  is  obliged  to  take  refuge  in  the 
precincts  of  the  Temple. 

The  disasters  of  1302  in  Flanders  necessitate  new  contribu¬ 
tions.  Philip  the  Fair  adopts  the  tax  proportional  to  the 
income.  He  attempts  to  show  the  people  that  it  is  in  their 
own  interest  that  he  has  been  inspired  to  decide  upon  this 
form  of  tax,  which  was,  moreover,  softened  by  the  manner  in 
which  it  was  collected. 

44  Deal  amicably,”  writes  the  King  to  his  collectors,  44  with 
the  people  of  big  and  small  towns  ;  show  how  in  this  affair, 
which  touches  the  interest  of  all,  each  is  bound  to  give  of  his 
goods  according  to  his  power.  The  King  does  not  wish  that 
his  subjects  should  be  exposed  to  the  perils  of  war;  he  wishes, 
on  the  contrary,  to  arrange  everything  so  as  to  cause  them  the 
smallest  injury.  He  has  taken  counsel  with  wise  and  prudent 
men,  who  have  sought  to  discover  the  best  way  for  the  people, 
and  they  have  decided  that  the  people  should  give  subsidies 
to  the  King  for  four  months,  that  if  the  campaign  should  drag 
on  longer  they  would  pay  no  more,  but  the  subsidies  should 
be  proportionally  diminished  if  the  campaign  should  be 
404 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


shorter.”  “For  each  sergeant,”  continued  the  King,  “  only 
two  sous  would  be  paid,  although  he  costs  more  to  the  King  ; 
and  during  the  whole  war  neither  customs,  the  fiftieth,  nor 
any  other  subvention  shall  be  demanded.” 

The  King  ended  with  these  words  :  “  Item,  if  you  cannot 
make  a  good  agreement  with  the  towns  taken  together,  treat 
with  each  separately  and  see  how  much  each  should  pay  ; 
estimate  what  could  be  derived  from  this  method  and  from 
the  other,  and  see  which  would  yield  the  greater  profit  ;  but 
the  King  inclines  to  that  which  shall  appear  best  to  the  people.” 

At  other  times  the  King  called  to  Paris  the  representatives 
of  the  big  towns,  the  prelates,  and  lords  of  the  realm.  An 
assembly  of  this  sort  took  place  on  1st  April  1314  in  the  garden 
of  the  Palace.  Some  supplies  were  necessary  for  the  war  of 
Flanders.  Enguerran  de  Marigny,  “  coadjutor  of  the  realm,” 
stood  up  beside  the  King  :  “  Preaching  to  the  people,  he 

explained  the  complaint  of  the  King.”  He  described  the  origins 
of  the  conflict,  the  vicissitudes  of  the  war,  and  the  treaty  of 
peace  which  the  Flemish  did  not  wish  to  observe.  “  Against 
these  rebels  will  not  the  faithful  subjects  of  the  King  of  France 
consent  to  assist  their  lord  ?”  At  these  words  the  King  rose 
and  approached  the  edge  of  the  platform  in  order  to  receive 
the  engagements  of  those  who  were  disposed  to  come  to  his 
assistance.  The  first  who  responded  was  Etienne  Barbette, 
burgess  of  Paris.  In  the  name  of  the  Parisians  he  said  that 
all  would  help  their  King  in  the  measure  of  their  power.  The 
King  thanked  him  for  his  assurance.  And  after  him,  one  by 
one,  the  delegates  from  other  communes  of  France  spoke  in 
the  same  sense.  And  the  King  thanked  them.  And  then, 
after  this  parliament,  a  subvention  was  levied  .  ,  .  for  which 
the  said  Enguerran  fell  under  the  hatred  and  malediction  of 
the  common  people.” 

Enguerran  Le  Portier  de  Marigny  was  the  greatest  figure  of 
the  reign  after  Pierre  Flote.  He  came  of  a  modest  family  of 
Norman  origin.  In  1298  we  find  him  pantler  of  Queen  Jeanne 
of  Navarre,  who  was  his  patron  at  Court.  He  became  chamber- 
lain  of  the  King.  In  these  functions  he  displayed  his  adminis¬ 
trative  powers.  At  the  end  of  the  reign  he  could  boast  that  he 
was  the  only  one  who  understood  the  finances  of  the  kingdom. 

405 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


He  was  equally  well  informed  as  to  the  resources  of  the  neigh¬ 
bouring  peoples  and  the  resources  of  foreign  courts.  He  writes 
to  Simon  of  Pisa  :  44  Know,  Brother  Simon,  that  I  am  aware  as 
well  as  a  man  of  Flanders  of  the  power  of  the  Flemings,  of  the 
money  they  can  strike,  and  that  I  know  as  well  as  you  who  have 
been  there  the  agreements  which  the  German  nobles  make,  what 
they  do  and  what  they  think.” 

To  these  gifts  of  administration  he  added  oratorical  powers 
already  useful  to  those  who  wished  to  acquire  influence  in 
France.  Geoff  roi  de  Paris  calls  him  44  the  finest  speaker  of  all 
in  France.”  He  exercised  a  considerable  influence  on  Philip 
the  Fair  during  the  last  years  of  the  reign.  44  He  was  key  and 
lock  of  the  kingdom.”  Foreign  sovereigns  overwhelmed  him 
with  gifts  and  sought  his  favour.  The  Pope  offered  him  a  rose 
of  gold.  Ministers,  Kings,  and  Pope,  says  the  popular  chronicler, 
were  puppets  in  his  hands  of  which  he  held  the  wires  : 

44  He  had  them  all  on  his  line.” 

In  this  rapid  rise,  Marigny  appeared  not  to  have  main¬ 
tained  necessary  moderation.  His  house  at  Paris  had  a  golden 
gable  ;  his  luxury  overshadowed  the  King’s  brothers  ;  in  the 
city  court  of  justice,  whose  reconstruction  he  directed,  he  caused 
his  statue  to  be  erected  at  the  side  of  that  of  Philip  the  Fair. 
44  One  sees  him  when  one  mounts  to  the  chapel,”  writes  Geoff roi 
de  Paris,  44  at  the  right  of  the  King  in  white  head-dress.” 

Some  contemporaries  understood  the  necessity  of  the 
contributions  which  the  King  levied  ;  but  their  number  was 
small  and  the  needs  were  pressing.  It  was  thus  that  Philip  the 
Fair  was  brought  to  the  changes^in  the  currency  for  which  he 
has  been  so  much  reproached. 

In  order  to  grasp  what  constituted  in  the  thirteenth  and 
fourteenth  centuries  the  false  currency  of  the  Kings,  it  must  be 
noted  that  in  the  Middle  Ages  there  was  a  double  currency — 
a  real  money  and  a  nominal  money.  One  reckoned  by  livres, 
sous,  and  deniers,  a  way  of  reckoning  which  passed  into  England, 
where  the  initials  have  been  preserved  :  £  =  pound,  livre  ;  s  = 
shilling,  sou  ;  d  =  penny,  denier.  The  golden  florin  of  the 
middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  was  worth  12  sous  6  deniers, 
and  the  groat  of  Tours  was  equal  in  value  to  a  sou.  But  these 
ratios  were  not  fixed  ;  they  could  vary  either  by  the  natural 
406 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


changes  of  currency  or  by  order  of  the  King.  He  could  ordain, 
for  example,  that  the  groat  of  Tours  should  for  the  future 
be  received  for  two  sous  instead  of  one.  The  King  could  also, 
without  altering  the  nominal  value  of  the  Tours  groats,  reduce 
their  weight  and  standard,  so  that  in  reality  their  value  was  the 
half  of  what  they  were  previously  worth,  at  the  same  time 
maintaining  their  value  in  exchange.  In  this  consisted  the 
debased  coining  of  Philip  the  Fair.  In  his  urgent  needs,  he 
declared  that  the  money  leaving  the  coffers  should  have  a  value 
superior  to  that  which  it  had  in  reality  ;  or  indeed  he  recoined 
the  money  in  them,  giving  an  inferior  weight  and  standard. 
He  did  not  alter  the  pieces  in  order  to  deceive  the  people,  as  is 
generally  believed  ;  he  warned  the  public  of  the  diminution  in 
weight  which  he  caused  in  the  Tours  groats  and  the  golden  florin 
while  imposing  on  them  a  forced  currency.  This  is  the  exact 
word.  Such  is  our  paper-money. 

At  the  time  of  the  great  alteration  of  1295,  necessitated  by 
the  war  against  England,  the  King  expressed  himself  in  this 
way  :  “  We  have  been  obliged  to  have  a  coinage  struck  which 
lacks  something  of  the  weight  and  of  the  alloy  that  our  pre¬ 
decessors  put  into  it.”  But,  adds  the  King,  “  I  shall  accept 
myself  this  money  in  payment  of  that  which  is  due  to  me,  and 
later  I  shall  indemnify  those  who  shall  have  suffered  any  loss 
from  this  cause  ”  ;  and  to  this  effect  he  engaged  the  revenues  ot 
his  domains. 

Finally,  as  soon  as  he  could,  the  King  invited  the  holders  of 
“  feeble  ”  money  to  report  themselves  at  his  workshops,  so 
that  he  could  cause  them  to  be  refunded  in  “  good  and  ancient 
money.”  It  was  then  a  form  of  loan  such  as  the  economic 
condition  of  the  time  permitted,  and  which  the  King  repaid 
when  the  state  of  his  finances  gave  him  the  means  to  do  so. 
Notice,  for  example,  a  Bull  of  Benedict  XI,  the  successor  of 
Boniface  VIII,  which  grants  to  the  King  (11th  May  1305)  a 
year  of  prebends  and  two  years  of  the  ecclesiastical  benefices  in 
France,  in  order  that  he  should  be  able  to  raise  his  coinage  to  the 
standard  it  possessed  under  Saint  Louis. 

Modern  times  have  seen  the  assignats,  forced  currency  notes, 
and  loans  which  the  organization  of  great  financial  concerns 
permit,  resources  which  were  wanting  to  Philip  the  Fair. 

407 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


When  in  our  days  the  Government  issues  forty  or  fifty  milliards’ 
worth  of  paper-money,  bank-notes,  guaranteed  by  five  or  six 
milliards  of  gold  or  silver  in  the  cellars  of  the  Bank  of  France, 
it  also  issues  false  money — indeed,  much  more  false  than  that  of 
Philip  the  Fair,  and  exposed,  like  it,  to  sudden  changes  and 
variations  in  value  ;  but  the  progress  realized  since  the  thir¬ 
teenth  century  in  monetary  circulation,  the  control  of  credit  and 
the  introduction  of  a  fiduciary  money,  make  the  inconveniences 
no  longer  as  great  as  in  former  times. 

It  is  certain  that  if  Philip  the  Fair  had  had  the  disposal  of 
the  financial  organization  which  the  Knights  of  the  Temple 

had  developed  for  themselves,  he  would  not  have 
The  Temp  ^rs.  dreame(j  Gf  debasing  the  coinage. 

This  Order,  religious  and  military,  founded  in  1119  by  a 
knight  of  Champagne,  Hugue  de  Payns,  had  rapidly  attained 
an  extraordinary  prosperity.  In  1128  the  Council  of  Troyes, 
at  the  suggestion  of  St.  Bernard,  gave  to  the  44  Poor  Soldiers  of 
the  Temple  ”  a  rule  inspired  by  that  of  Citeaux.  The  end  of 
the  order  was  to  protect  the  Holy  Land  against  the  attacks  of 
the  Infidels.  It  courageously  fulfilled  its  mission,  and  at  the 
end  of  the  thirteenth  century,  those  who  took  in  hand  the  cause 
of  the  Temple  could  say  that  20,000  Brothers  had  died  in  Pales¬ 
tine  with  their  arms  in  their  hands.  But  while  combating 
the  Infidel  and  assuring  for  themselves  eternal  life,  the  Poor 
Soldiers  of  the  Temple  fostered  their  worldly  interests.  They 
became  the  owners  of  so  much  property  that  the  Council  of 
the  Lateran  in  1179  already  demanded  that  they  should 
abandon  what  they  had  acquired  during  the  ten  preceding  years. 

They  founded  44  houses  ”  in  the  West,  more  particularly  in 
France.  On  16th  June  1291  the  Mohammedans  seized  St.  Jean 
d’Acre,  the  last  foothold  of  Christendom  in  the  Holy  Land.  The 
Templars  returned  to  their  original  country.  At  this  moment 
the  order  should  have  been  dissolved.  It  had  no  longer  any 
raison  d’être. 

The  property  of  the  Temple  at  the  end  of  the  thirteenth 
century  was  immense. 

In  1229  the  Emperor  Frederick  II  was  obliged  to  hunt  them 
out  of  Sicily.  The  number  of  knights  at  the  period  when 
Philip  the  Fair  ascended  the  throne  was  15,000  in  round 
408 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


numbers.  Each  of  them  was  a  tried  soldier.  Towards  the 
middle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  Matthew  Paris  attributed 
9000  castles  and  manors  to  them  :  the  number  given  by  the 
Chronique  de  Flandre  is  even  larger.  Each  of  these  manors  was 
the  nucleus  of  a  fief,  a  centre  of  influence.  In  the  archives  of 
the  commanderies  of  the  Temple  were  preserved  by  hundreds 
the  titles  of  the  revenues  granted  to  the  tenants  of  the  neigh¬ 
bourhood,  which  involved  the  obligation  of  fidelity  and  of  feudal 
service.  The  ecclesiastical  and  lay  lords  constantly  complained 
to  the  King  that  their  vassals  refused  them  the  service  that  was 
due  to  them  on  the  pretext  that  they  were  men  of  the  Temple. 
Consider  the  new  town  of  the  Temple  at  Paris,  the  territory  of 
the  Temple  near  Ypres,  and  so  many  others  ;  each  of  these 
domains  was  a  veritable  feudal  lordship,  with  rights  of  high, 
middle,  and  petty  justice,  annual  fairs,  privileges,  and  franchises 
and  numerous  “  manants.”  Among  other  franchises  the 
Templars  claimed  that  of  not  being  amenable  judicially 
except  to  the  Pope,  after  the  fashion  of  other  religious 
orders. 

Not  content  to  exercise  their  authority  over  the  territories 
subject  to  them,  the  Templars  attempted  to  acquire  new  rights, 
in  which  they  were  particularly  favoured  by  the  troubles  of  the 
war  in  Aquitaine  under  Philip  the  Fair.  Their  patronage,  more¬ 
over,  was  very  much  sought  by  the  people  of  the  country,  who 
thus  armed  themselves  against  the  power  of  the  seigniorial 
bailiffs.  Michelet  notes  that  in  the  seneschal’s  jurisdiction  of 
Beaucaire  alone  the  order  had  bought  10,000  pounds’  worth  of 
revenues  vested  in  land  ;  and  this  did  not  only  represent  at  the 
epoch  a  considerable  property,  but  a  great  territorial  power. 
The  Prior  of  St.  Gilles  had  under  him  alone  fifty-four  com¬ 
manderies.  In  most  of  the  countries  of  Europe  the  Brothers  had 
fortresses  ;  in  the  kingdom  of  Valencia  they  possessed  seventeen 
of  them.  They  had  been  seen  to  attack  crowned  heads — the 
King  of  Cyprus  and  the  Prince  of  Antioch — dethrone  a  King  of 
Jerusalem,  ravage  Greece  and  Thrace. 

The  origin  of  their  financial  power  was  the  immense  treasure 
which  they  had  brought  back  to  the  West  :  150,000  golden 
florins,  which  a  skilful  financial  administration  soon  increased 
tenfold.  As  the  Templars  had  houses  in  every  country, 

409 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


they  carried  out  the  financial  operations  of  the  international 
banks  of  to-day  ;  they  were  acquainted  with  bills  of  exchange, 
orders  payable  at  sight  ;  they  arranged  annuities  and  pensions 
on  paid-up  capital,  made  advances  of  funds,  lent  against 
pledges,  managed  private  deposits,  and  undertook  the  levy  of 
taxes  for  lay  and  ecclesiastical  lords.  They  lent  money  to 
kings. 

From  the  year  1290,  Philip  the  Fair  was  uneasy  on  the 
subject  of  the  power  of  the  Temple.  By  letters  of  29th  June 
he  ordered  his  seneschals  and  baillis  to  send  him  the  list  of  the 
properties  acquired  by  the  Brothers  of  the  Temple  during  the 
last  forty-five  years.  The  same  year  the  Parliament  forbade 
them  to  extend  their  patronage  over  individuals.  On  22nd 
April  1293,  Philip  the  Fair  reminded  his  officials  of  this  decree, 
ordering  them  to  see  to  its  execution. 

The  Temple  enjoyed  insolent  prosperity.  Richard  Cœur 
de  Lion  said  that  he  left  his  avarice  to  the  Cistercians  and  his 
pride  to  the  Templars.  After  the  catastrophe  in  which  their 
power  was  to  collapse,  the  good  chronicler,  Geoffroi  de  Paris, 
drew  this  portrait  of  them  :  “  The  Brothers  of  the  Temple, 
gorged  with  gold  and  silver  and  who  commanded  such  nobility, 
where  are  they  ?  What  has  become  of  them,  those  whom  no 
one  dare  cite  in  the  courts  ?  Always  buying  and  never  selling, 
making  themselves  feared  as  much  as  the  King’s  officers, 
extending  their  pride  over  the  world,  making  themselves  richer 
than  the  richest  :  4  So  often  goes  the  pitcher  to  the  water  that 
it  breaks.’  ” 

They  came  to  the  point  of  braving  the  King  and  refusing 
to  pay  taxes. 

Philip  the  Fair  attempted  to  divert  to  the  royal  authority 
the  power  of  the  Temple.  Fie  solicited  admission  into  the 
Order  with  a  view  to  becoming  the  head.  He  selected  the 
Grand  Master  as  godfather  of  one  of  his  children.  These 
advances  were  repulsed  :  and  the  destruction  of  the  Temple 
was  decided  in  his  mind. 

Imagine  what  would  have  become  of  the  power  of  the  King 
of  Bourges  in  the  evil  days  of  the  Hundred  Years  War  in  the 
face  of  an  Order  counting  some  thousands  of  knights,  sheltered 
in  some  hundreds  of  fortresses,  disposing  of  infinite  resources  and 
410 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


of  an  immense  number  of  vassals  and  tenants.  We  know  the 
history  of  the  Teutonic  Order. 

The  registers  of  the  Trésor  des  Chartes  state  that  on  the 
22nd  September  1307,  in  the  monastery  of  Maubisson  lès 
Pontoise,  the  King  gave  the  seals  to  Nogaret,  and  that  the 
matter  of  the  Templars  was  there  directly  dealt  with.  They 
were  arrested  throughout  France  on  13th  October.  The  opera¬ 
tion  was  carried  out  with  so  much  decision  that  no  resistance 
could  be  made.  The  Templars  were  prosecuted  for  heresy. 

Already  for  a  long  time  strange  rumours  had  circulated 
about  the  secret  practices  of  the  Templars,  because  they  took 
care  that  the  holding  of  their  chapters  and  the  rules  of  their 
Order  should  remain  unknown  to  the  uninitiated.  What  had 
they  so  serious  as  to  require  concealment  ?  The  Preceptor 
of  Auvergne,  one  of  the  dignitaries  of  the  Temple,  who  was  later 
asked  why  his  Order  was  always  surrounded  with  such  pro¬ 
found  secrecy,  replied,  “  Through  folly.” 

The  crowd  spoke  of  frightful  vices  and  of  idolatry. 

Philip  the  Fair  proceeded  by  way  of  appeal  to  the  people. 
In  his  name  Nogaret  spoke  to  the  Parisians  in  the  garden  of 
the  Palace  (13th  October  1307).  Popular  assemblies  were 
summoned  throughout  France.  At  Tours  the  States-General 
met  in  immense  numbers  :  the  Tiers  Etat  itself  alone  counted 
over  700  delegates  (May  1308).  The  act  of  accusation  against 
the  Templars  was  read.  The  people  had  confidence  in  the 
person  of  the  King,  who  was  essentially  in  their  eyes  the  defender 
of  the  Church.  With  one  voice  the  representatives  of  the 
Nobility  and  of  the  big  towns  replied  that  the  Templars  deserved 
death. 

On  26th  November  1309  the  Grand  Master,  Jacques  de 
Molay,  appeared  before  the  judges  declaring  himself  prepared 
to  defend  the  Temple,  although  he  was  only  a  poor  knight, 
simple  and  uninstructed.  He  spoke  with  force  and  emotion  : 

“  I  know  no  religious  Order  whose  churches  had  finer  orna¬ 
ments  than  the  churches  of  the  Temple  ;  I  know  no  Order  in 
which  larger  alms  were  given  than  in  the  houses  of  the  Temple, 
where,  three  times  a  week,  one  gave  to  all  comers  ;  I  know  no 
Order  which  has  shed  so  much  blood  in  fighting  the  enemies  of 
the  faith,” 


411 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


When  it  was  pointed  out  to  him  that  all  this  was  nothing 
without  a  pure  doctrine,  he  said  : 

44  It  is  true.  It  is  true.  But  I  believe  in  only  one  God 
in  three  persons  and  in  the  whole  Catholic  faith  ;  I  believe  in 
one  God,  one  faith,  one  baptism,  one  Church,  and  that  at  the 
hour  when  the  soul  leaves  the  body  we  shall  see  the  good  and 
the  wicked,  and  that  then  each  of  us  will  know  the  truth  of  that 
which  is  at  present  a  matter  of  debate.” 

It  came  to  pass  that  this  same  Jacques  de  Molay  and  many 
of  the  dignitaries  of  the  Order  recognized  as  well  founded  the 
practices  of  which  the  Order  of  the  Temple  was  accused. 
Clement  V  writes  that,  before  him,  persons  occupying  high 
positions  in  the  Order  had  admitted  freely  and  without  con¬ 
straint  that  at  the  reception  of  new  Brothers  they  were  forced 
to  deny  Christ  ;  but  more  often  these  admissions  were  ex¬ 
tracted  by  torture  or  terror.  Ponsard  de  Gisy  declared  before 
the  Commissioners  :  44  During  the  three  months  which  pre¬ 

ceded  the  admissions  that  I  made  before  the  Bishop  of  Paris, 
I  was  placed  in  a  ditch  with  my  arms  bound  behind  my  back, 
and  pressed  so  strongly  that  all  the  blood  flowed  to  the  nails  ; 
I  was  secured  by  a  cord.  If  they  put  me  back  again  into 
torment,  I  should  say  all  that  they  wished.  I  am  prepared  to 
submit  to  limited  punishments,  to  have  my  head  cut  off,  to  be 
burned  or  boiled  for  the  honour  of  the  Order  ;  but  I  cannot  bear 
long  tortures  such  as  those  to  which  I  have  been  subjected  for 
more  than  two  years.” 

He  added  that  all  the  admissions  made  by  him  were  false. 
It  was  the  Prior  of  Montfaucon  and  the  monk  Guillaume 
Robert  who  caused  the  Templars  thus  to  be  put  to  the  question. 
Thirty-six  of  his  companions  had  perished  at  Paris  in  the 
tortures.  All  that  they  said  before  the  Bishop  of  Paris  against 
the  Order  was  false. 

Another  Templar,  Bernard  Dugue,  said  that  his  feet  had 
been  roasted  until  the  flesh  became  detached  and  the  bones 
from  his  heels  fell  off.  He  held  in  his  hand  two  bones  which 
the  torture  had  removed  from  his  heels. 

The  Brothers  who  appeared  before  the  inquisitors  declared 
that  they  would  defend  the  Order  to  the  death.  Some  of  them 
express  themselves  energetically  :  44  Those  who  have  spoken 
412 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


evil  of  it  have  lied  with  their  mouth.”  A  number  of  them 
retracted  their  declarations  previously  made  before  the  Pope. 
Those  who  accuse  the  Temple  of  heresy  or  of  evil  practices  are 
false  Brothers  who  have  left  the  Order  or  have  been  driven  from 
it  for  their  misconduct  and  wish  to  avenge  themselves. 

Brother  Jean  de  Montroyal,  in  his  name  and  in  the  name  of 
a  great  number  of  his  Brothers,  read  a  declaration  which  alone 
would  have  been  sufficient  to  justify  the  Order,  at  least  in 
general  : 

“  Our  Order  is  holy  ;  it  has  been  approved  by  the  Roman 
Church.  The  Brothers  have  always  lived  in  the  Catholic  and 
Roman  faith.  They  practise  fasts  and  abstinences,  confess 
and  communicate  publicly  at  Christmas,  Easter,  and  at  Pente¬ 
cost.  They  die  with  the  rites  of  the  Church.  All  the  Brothers 
of  our  house  are  bound  to  say  a  hundred  Paters  for  the  soul 
of  a  defunct  Brother  in  the  eight  days  which  follow  his  decease. 
The  High  Altar  in  our  churches  is  consecrated  to  the  Virgin. 
On  Friday  we  bear  a  silver-gilt  cross  before  the  eyes  of  all  the 
people  in  honour  of  the  cross  on  which  our  Saviour  died.  We 
distribute  alms  ;  we  give  hospitality  to  travellers.  Some 
Brothers  of  our  Order  have  become  archbishops  and  bishops. 
The  Kings  of  France  have  selected  treasurers  and  almoners 
from  among  our  Brothers.  Item,  a  number  of  our  Brothers 
have  been  prisoners  among  the  Infidels  for  twenty-five  years  ; 
neither  through  fear  of  death  nor  by  gifts  have  they  been 
brought  to  deny  Christ  ;  although  if  the  Templars  were  such 
as  report  describes  them  these  prisoners  would  now  be  at 
liberty.  The  true  cross  is  in  the  custody  of  the  Templars  ;  if 
the  Templars  were  what  they  are  said  to  be  the  true  cross  would 
not  suffer  itself  to  be  guarded  by  them.  The  crown  of  thorns 
does  not  blossom  on  Good  Friday  except  when  it  is  in  the  hands 
of  the  chaplain  of  the  Temple  ;  and  this  would  not  be  if  the 
Templars  were  what  they  are  said  to  be.  St.  Euphemia  has 
worked  many  miracles  in  one  of  the  houses  of  the  Temple  ;  and 
this  would  not  have  been  done  if  the  Templars  were  what  they 
are  said  to  be.  More  than  20,000  Brothers  have  died  beyond 
the  seas  for  the  defence  of  the  faith.” 

Jean  de  Montroyal  ends  with  these  words  : 

“  Item,  we  have  suffered  many  wounds  and  hellish  imprison- 

413 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


ment,  and  for  long  periods  on  bread  and  water  through  which 
many  of  our  Brothers  have  died  ;  and  we  should  not  have 
suffered  so  much  if  our  religion  were  not  pure  and  we  were 
not  maintaining  the  truth,  and  if  it  were  not  to  remove  evil 
errors  from  the  world  which  is  without  reason  on  the 
matter.” 

The  Order  of  the  Temple  was  innocent.  Were  there  in 
practice  in  some  houses  certain  bad  customs,  imported  from 
the  East,  a  show  of  renouncing  the  teaching  of  Christ  imposed 
as  a  proof  of  extreme  docility  and  obedience  ?  It  is  possible. 
The  heads  of  the  Order  were  ignorant  of  it. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  good  faith  of  the  accusers  is  not 
less  evident.  Fanatics  make  bad  judges,  this  has  been  seen 
at  all  times  ;  but  the  fanatics  are  convinced.  To  maintain 
that  Philip  the  Fair  executed  so  many  noble  victims  with  no 
other  motive  than  the  desire  to  seize  the  property  of  the 
Templars  is  a  suggestion  as  puerile  as  that  which  consists  in 
maintaining  that  the  “  patriots  ”  only  cut  off  so  many  heads 
in  order  to  seize  the  goods  of  the  aristocrats  and  the  émigrés. 

On  12th  May  1310,  fifty-four  Templars  who  persisted  in  the 
determination  to  defend  the  Order  were  burned  as  relapsed 
at  the  edge  of  the  Wood  of  Vincennes. 

The  story  of  this  punishment,  in  the  chroniclers  of  the 
time,  is  in  the  tone  of  44  Père  Duchesne,”  or  of  the  Revolutions 
de  Pam,  .describing  a  cartload  of  partisans  of  the  old  regime 
led  to  the  guillotine.  On  13th  May,  Brother  Aimeri  de  Villiers- 
le-Duc,  a  Templar  for  fifty-eight  years,  appeared  in  his  turn 
before  the  Commissioners.  44  Pale  and  terrified,”  he  heard 
the  act  of  accusation  read.  Brusquely  he  interrupted  :  44  I 

have  admitted  certain  articles  because  of  the  tortures  which 
Guillaume  de  Marcilly  and  Hugue  de  la  Celle,  knights  of  the 
King,  caused  me  to  endure.  All  that  I  have  said  is  false. 
Yesterday  I  saw  fifty-four  of  my  Brothers  in  wagons,  led  to 
the  stake,  because  they  did  not  wish  to  admit  our  alleged 
errors  ;  I  thought  that  I  could  never  resist  the  terror  of  the 
fire.  I  shall  admit  all,  I  feel  it  ;  I  would  declare  that  I  have 
killed  God.” 

By  the  Bull  Vox  in  excelso ,  dated  3rd  April  1312,  Clement  V 
declared  the  Order  of  the  Temple  suppressed.  The  Templars 
414 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 

dispersed  :  some  entered  convents  ;  others  married  and  betook 
themselves  to  manual  work.  On  18th  March  1314,  were  burned 
alive  the  Grand  Master  Jacques  de  Molay,  and  Geoffroi  de 
Charnay,  the  Preceptor  of  Normandy,  in  the  Ile  des  Javiaux, 
also  called  the  Ile  aux  Juifs,  to-day  joined  to  the  Ile  de  la 
Cité.  A  rough  crowd  pressed  about  the  two  illustrious  victims, 
and,  in  the  crowd,  Geoffroi  de  Paris,  who  has  left  a  moving 
account  of  the  last  moments  of  Molay. 

When  all  was  ready,  the  Grand  Master  stood  “  in  his  shirt.” 
As  he  had  some  money  with  him,  he  wished  to  distribute  it 
to  the  poor,  whom  he  saw  at  his  feet  :  “  That  God  might  have 
pity  on  his  soul.” 

But  he  found  not  any  soul 

Who  wished  to  hear  a  word  of  his; 

They  treated  him  as  a  dog. 

When  the  executioners  bound  his  hands  behind  his  back  he 
besought  them  :  “  Lords,  at  least  let  me  join  my  hands  a  little 
in  order  to  pray  to  God.” 

With  a  firm  voice  he  proclaimed  once  more  the  innocence 
and  purity  of  the  Order  ;  he  asked  to  be  turned  towards  the 
Virgin  Mary,  of  whom  our  Lord  was  born — that  is  to  say, 
towards  the  church  of  Notre  Dame. 

And  so  sweetly  welcomed  death 
That  each  one  marvelled  at  it. 

When  he  had  given  his  last  sigh,  his  companion,  the  pre¬ 
ceptor  Geoffroi  de  Charnay,  spoke  in  his  turn  : 

Lords,  without  a  doubt 
My  master’s  way  I  follow, 

You  have  him  as  a  martyr  slain. 

The  crowd  in  dispersing  discussed  the  tragedy.  Geoffrey 
of  Paris  states  this  and  adds  philosophically  : 

I  know  not  who  speaks  truth  or  who  the  lie, 

May  that  come  of  it  which  ought  to  be. 

What  became  of  the  possessions  of  the  Temple  ?  Philip 
the  Fair  decided  that  they  should  be  handed  over  to  the 
Hospitallers.  Clement  V  bears  witness  that  the  orders  given 
by  the  King  in  this  matter  were  executed.  The  very  estate  of 
the  Temple  in  Paris,  which,  up  to  the  eve  of  the  Revolution, 

415 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


was  the  property  of  the  Order  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem,  bears 
witness  to  this  up  to  the  threshold  of  the  modern  age. 

The  royal  treasury  retained  certain  sums  for  the  expenses 
of  the  trial,  which  were  immense.  In  1312  the  King  assembled 
the  Council  of  Vienne  in  order  that  the  teaching  of  the  Temple 
should  there  be  judged. 

The  great  riches  and  power  of  the  Temple  consisted  in  the 
hundreds  and  thousands  of  contracts  of  quit-rent  {cens)  and 
rente  which  all  over  Christendom  attached  creditors  and 
tenants  to  it.  These  titles  were  destroyed  by  the  very  fact 
that  the  Templars  were  declared  to  be  heretics,  every  debt 
to  a  heretic  being  reputed  null.  And  perhaps  it  is  in  this 
fact  one  must  seek  the  reason  of  the  hostility  which  everywhere 
manifested  itself  against  the  knights,  and  the  facility  with  which, 
thanks  to  the  complicity  of  public  opinion,  all  resistance  was 
stifled. 

In  these  violent  conflicts  hardly  has  one  been  able  to  catch 
a  glimpse  of  the  legislative  work  which  found  its  principal 

expression  in  the  great  ordinance  of  1303.  Philip 
Reign  ^  8  the  Lair  so  perfected  the  judicial  institutions  that 

we  may  see  in  him  the  founder  of  the  Parlement. 
But  here  again  what  obstacles  he  had  to  surmount.  In  1306 
the  King  was  obliged  to  give  way  on  an  essential  point  in  allow¬ 
ing  to  be  re-established  the  ordeal  by  battle,  even  in  grave 
cases — homicide  and  witchcraft. 

The  Abbot  of  St.  Denis  bears  witness  that  in  the  last  part 
of  his  reign  the  temper  of  the  King  was  gloomy.  He  became 
sad  and  spoke  less  and  less.  To  his  intimates  he  confided  the 
anxiety  he  suffered  from  the  wars,  the  disturbances  and  the 
violences  of  his  reign.  Did  he  recognize  the  tortures  inflicted 
on  the  Templars,  he  who  said  in  setting  free  the  prisoners  of 
the  Inquisition,  “  Prisons  exist  to  retain  the  guilty,  not  to 
torture  them.” 

The  death  of  his  wife,  Jeanne  de  Navarre,  at  Vincennes, 
2nd  April  1305,  in  the  brilliance  of  her  thirty-two  years, 
had  contributed  to  this  sadness.  She  was  a  valiant  woman 
who,  in  spite  of  her  embonpoint  and  her  rosy  complexion, 
when  Henri  de  Bar  invaded  her  county  of  Champagne,  did  not 
hesitate  to  take  horse  to  lead  the  troops,  who  vanquished  the 
416 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


Count  de  Bar  and  took  him  prisoner  at  Comines.  A  cultivated 
woman,  who  will  always  preserve  the  glory  of  having  instigated 
the  old  Sire  de  Joinville  to  write  his  immortal  life  of  Saint 
Louis.  The  humble  monk,  Bernard  Délicieux,  in  the  course 
of  his  campaign  for  the  defence  of  the  people  of  Languedoc 
against  the  Inquisition,  calls  Jeanne  44  This  other  Esther 
who  protects  us.”  Many  documents  bear  witness  to  the  great 
intimacy  which  united  Philip  the  Fair  and  his  wife. 

She  was  not  then  near  him  to  soften  the  terrible  blow  he 
received  in  learning  of  the  conduct  of  his  daughters-in-law. 
Isabelle,  daughter  of  Philip  the  Fair,  who  had  married  Edward 
II,  King  of  England,  had  given  two  purses  of  cloth  of  gold  : 
one  to  Marguerite  of  Burgundy,  daughter  of  the  Duke  of 
Burgundy,  and  wife  of  Louis  le  Hutin,  son  and  heir  of  the  King 
of  France  ;  and  the  other  to  Blanche,  second  daughter  of 
Otto  IV,  Count  Palatine  of  Burgundy,  and  wife  of  Charles  IV, 
third  son  of  Philip  the  Fair.  On  her  return  to  France  she  was 
surprised  to  find  these  purses  at  the  belt  of  two  young  knights 
who  frequented  the  Court — Philip  and  Gauthier  d’Aunay. 
Philip  the  Fair  caused  the  two  brothers  d’Aunay  to  be  flayed 
alive  at  Pontoise  and  their  corpses  dragged  through  the  streets. 
Some  suspicions  having  also  fallen  on  Jeanne  of  Burgundy, 
the  wife  of  Philip  the  Tall,  the  King  ordered  that  she  should 
be  imprisoned  like  her  two  sisters-in-law.  Marguerite,  wife  of 
Louis  le  Hutin,  was  shut  up  in  Château-Gaillard.  She  admitted 
her  misconduct,  and  soon  perished  in  the  dungeon  of  the  cold 
prison  where  she  had  been  thrown. 

Jeanne  of  Burgundy,  wife  of  Philip  the  Tall,  never  ceased  to 
protest  her  innocence.  She  was  taken  to  the  Castle  of  Dourdan 
in  a  four-wheeled  car  covered  with  black  cloth.  She  said  with 
sighs,  to  those  who  stopped  to  see  her  pass  :  44  For  God’s  sake, 
tell  my  lord  Philip  that  I  die  without  sin.”  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  her  innocence  was  recognized,  and  she  returned  to  her 
husband. 

The  third,  Blanche  of  Burgundy,  the  wife  of  Charles  the 
Fair,  was  a  child.  She  was  hardly  eighteen  years  of  age  when 
she  also  was  shut  up  in  Château-Gaillard.  She  had  no  wish  to 
die.  She  protested  that  she  had  done  no  evil.  She  had  already 
given  Charles  the  Fair  two  children,  who  had  died  in  infancy. 

2  d  417 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


She  was  questioned  several  times  in  the  chapel  of  Château- 
Gaillard  in  the  presence  of  her  ladies.  “  The  gaiety  of  her 
countenance,”  we  read  in  one  of  the  reports,  “showed  that  at 
that  moment  she  was  without  any  fear.”  She  allowed  herself 
to  be  divorced  from  her  husband  on  the  pretext  of  spiritual 
affinity.  She  was  then  permitted  to  take  the  veil  in  the  Abbey 
of  Maubuisson,  where  her  children  were  buried.  There  she  died 
in  1325. 

On  the  other  hand,  Philip  the  Fair  already  heard  the  rumble 
of  the  reaction  which  was  to  sweep  away  his  work,  cause  the 
fall  of  his  chancellor,  Pierre  de  Latilly,  and  of  his  chamberlain, 
Enguerran  de  Marigny.  During  the  year  1314,  in  different 
parts  of  France,  in  Brittany,  in  Normandy,  in  Picardy,  in 
Champagne,  in  Burgundy,  in  Anjou,  in  Auvergne,  in  Poitou,  in 
Gascony,  and  in  Languedoc,  were  formed  leagues  against  the 
King  who  “  devours  his  people.”  “  Let  the  reigning  King  be¬ 
ware,”  writes  a  member  of  the  league,  the  old  Sire  de  Joinville. 
“  He  has  escaped  great  perils.  It  is  only  time  that  he  should 
mend  his  ways  in  order  that  God  should  not  strike  him  and  his 
cruelly.” 

The  Flemish  on  their  side  did  not  execute  the  Treaty  of 
Athis.  Very  weary  of  this  strife,  cropping  up  again  incessantly, 
Philip  equipped  a  new  army,  to  march,  once  again,  towards  the 
Northern  frontier. 

Did  the  silent  King  cast  at  this  moment  an  anxious  glance 
over  the  destinies  of  the  kingdom  ?  Did  the  prediction  of  Saint 
Louis  recur  to  his  mind  ?  His  energy  is  unimpaired  ;  he  does  not 
allow  his  courage  to  fail.  Hiding  his  projects  from  his  minister 
selected  by  himself,  Marigny,  who,  a  methodical  man  con¬ 
cerned  with  internal  affairs,  did  not  like  to  see  the  resources 
of  the  treasury  squandered  beyond  the  frontiers,  he  engaged  in 
negotiations  beyond  the  Rhine  in  order  to  arrange  the  succession 
of  his  brother  Charles  to  the  throne  of  Germany,  vacant  by  the 
death  of  Henry  VII.  He  restored  to  honour  the  projects  of  an 
expedition  to  the  Holy  Land,  took  the  Cross  with  his  three 
sons,  an  expedition  which  in  his  mind  ought  to  assure  perpetual 
peace  by  concentrating  in  his  hands  all  the  forces  of  Christendom. 
To  these  projects  of  a  Crusade  the  inveterate  servant  of  the  royal 
magnificence,  Nogaret,  devoted  himself  passionately. 

418 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


But  Nogaret  dies  ;  then  Clement  V  ;  and,  behold,  Philip 
the  Fair  is  struck  down  in  the  strength  of  his  forty-six 
years.  All  three  rapidly  disappear  as  though  obeying  the 
summons  of  the  Templar  of  Naples,  of  whom  Ferreti  de  Vicenza 
speaks. 

On  4th  November  1314,  while  hunting  in  the  woods  of  Pont 
St.  Maxence,  the  King  felt  the  first  attack  of  the  malady  to  which 
he  was  to  succumb.  He  was  on  horseback  and  was  seized 
with  a  fainting  fit  ;  his  heart  ceased  to  beat.  Yet  he  did  not  fall 
from  his  horse.  He  was  taken  by  water  to  Poissy,  where  he 
rested  ten  days.  He  was  able  to  go  on  horseback  from  Poissy 
to  Essonnes  ;  there  his  illness  broke  out  afresh,  and  he  was 
carried  in  a  litter  as  far  as  Fontainebleau. 

On  the  morning  of  the  26th,  Philip  the  Fair  knew  that  his 
end  was  near.  He  confessed,  communicated,  and  then  went  to 
bed.  He  put  in  order  the  details  of  his  will.  From  time  to 
time  he  paused  to  say,  44  Fair  Lord  God,  I  commend  my  spirit 
into  Thy  hands.”  Then  he  received  the  last  sacraments.  He 
whom  the  others  ought  to  have  consoled,  writes  an  eye-witness 
of  his  death,  consoled  them.  At  the  last  he  calls  his  eldest 
son  :  4 4  Louis,”  he  says  to  him,  44 1  speak  to  you  before  men  who 
love  you  and  are  bound  to  love  you  ;  for  my  part,  I  love  you 
above  all  others,  but  may  your  life  be  such  that  you  may  deserve 
to  be  loved.”  He  tells  him  how  he  ought  to  rule  with  dignity 
and  moderation,  governing  by  himself,  but  taking  advice  from 
prudent  men,  in  particular  of  his  two  uncles,  Charles  and  Louis. 
44  Act  so  that  every  one  may  perceive  that  you  are  son  of  a  King, 
nay  more,  King  of  France.”  And  many  times,  adds  the  chronicler, 
he  said,  44  Ponder,  Louis,  these  words  :  4  What  is  it  to  be  King 
of  France  ?  ’  ” 

Some  moments  later  the  King  asked  that  all  should 
retire. 

44  Secretly,  before  the  confessor  alone,  he  taught  his  eldest 
son  how  he  ought  to  act  in  touching  the  sick  and  the  holy  words 
he  had  been  accustomed  to  use  when  he  touched  them.  Simi¬ 
larly  he  told  him  that  it  was  with  great  reverence,  holiness,  and 
purity  that  he  ought  to  touch  the  infirm,  clean  of  conscience  as 
of  hands.” 

Philip  the  Fair  passed  away  peacefully  at  Fontainebleau  on 

419 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


29th  November  1314,  reciting  the  office  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  He 
was  forty- six  years  old. 

Philip  the  Fair  has  not  been  understood,  and  therefore  has 
not  received  justice.  This  young  Prince  was  one  of  the  greatest 
kings  and  of  the  noblest  characters  in  history.  Speaking  of  his 
struggle  against  the  Papacy,  the  great  historians  of  the  sixteenth 
century  will  recall  that  he  was  surnamed  Philip  the  Catholic, 
“  by  the  voice  of  the  people  and  at  the  request  of  the  clergy.” 

The  generation  which  succeeded  him  celebrated  with  grati¬ 
tude  the  prosperity  which  he  gave  to  France  by  his  far-seeing 
and  active  policy.  His  reign  did  not  appear  to  the  subjects 
of  Philip  of  Valois  the  “  reign  of  the  devil,”  but  a  reign  of 
beauty  and  of  wisdom,  worthy  of  admiration.  At  the  opening 
of  the  fourteenth  century,  commerce,  industry,  agriculture  are 
in  a  flourishing  state  from  north  to  south  of  France  :  the 
cultivation  of  the  vine  and  of  cereals,  the  raising  of  cattle,  the 
wool  trade  are  equally  prosperous.  Agricultural  machinery 
had  been  brought  to  perfection.  One  sees  the  foundation  of 
joint-stock  companies,  a  marvel  for  those  days.  In  Provence 
and  in  Languedoc  one  encounters  swineherds  who  possess  vine¬ 
yards  ;  simple  drovers  have  houses  in  town.  And  the  increase  of 
population  becomes  more  marked  with  the  ease  and  the  active 
life,  to  such  a  point  that  eminent  historians,  like  Siméon  Luce, 
go  so  far  as  to  claim  that  the  population  of  France  equalled 
then,  if  it  did  not  exceed,  the  population  of  France  to-day. 


Sources. — The  contemporary  chronicles,  notably  those  published  in 
the  Recueil  des  Historiens  des  Gaules  et  de  la  France ,  tomes  xx.-xxiii. 
(1840-76),  4  vols.  fol.  ;  Annales  Gaudenses ,  1896  ;  Chronique  Artésienne , 
1898  ;  Regestum  dementis  papœ  V,  1880-90,  7  vols.  ;  Limburg-Stirum, 
Codex  diplomaticus  Flandriæ,  1296-1325,  Bruges,  1878-89,  2  vols.  ;  Thomas 
Rymer,  Fœdera,  conventiones  .  .  .  inter  reges  Angliœ  et  alios  quosvis , 
3rd  ed.,  The  Hague,  1739-45,  10  vols.  fol.  ;  Michelet,  Procès  des  Templiers, 
Paris,  1841-51,  2  vols.  ;  Buegnot,  Les  Olim,  1839-48,  4  vols.  ;  Edelstan  du 
Meril,  Poésies  populaires  latines  du  Moyen  Age,  1847. 

Historical  Works. — Edgar  Boutaric,  La  France  sous  Philippe  le 
Bel,  1861  ;  Ch.  V.  Langlois,  Histoire  de  France,  ed.  Lavisse,  iii.  1901  ; 
P.  Dupuy,  Histoire  du  differ  and  d'entre  le  Pope  Boniface  VIII  et  Philippe 
le  Bel,  1655  ;  Digard,  Les  Registres  de  Boniface  VIII,  1884^91  ;  Ernest 
Renan,  44  Guillaume  de  Nogaret  ”  in  Histoire  Littéraire  de  la  France , 
xxviii.,  1877,  233-371  ;  Robert  Holtzmann,  Wilhelm  von  Nogaret,  Fribourg- 
420 


PHILIP  THE  FAIR 


en-B.,  1898  ;  P.  Funke,  Papst  Benedikt  XI,  1891  ;  C.  Wenck,  Clemens  V 
u.  Heinrich  VII,  Halle,  1882  ;  G.  Lizerand,  Clement  V  et  Philippe  le  Bel, 
1910  ;  K.  Schottmiiller,  Der  Untergang  des  Templer-Ordens,  1887  ;  Ch.  V. 
Langlois,  “  Le  Procès  des  Templiers,”  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  15tli 
January  1891,  pp.  382-421  ;  L.  Delisle,  “  Opérations  financières  des 
Templiers ,”  Mémoires  de  V Academie  des  Inscriptions,  xxxiii.  (1889)  ; 
Warnkônig-Gheldolf,  Histoire  de  la  Flandre,  1835-64,  5  vols.  ;  H.  Pirenne, 
Histoire  de  Belgique,  tome  i.,  3rd  ed.,  1909. 


421 


CHAPTER  XVIII 


THE  END  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 

Feudalism  becomes  disorganized.  Provincial  Leagues.  Re¬ 
action  against  the  work  of  the  legists.  Louis  X.  Disgrace  and 
punishment  of  Marigny.  Civil  troubles  in  Artois.  Rivalry  of 
Robert  and  Mahaut  d’Artois.  The  provincial  charters.  Check  in 
the  Flanders  campaign  :  “  the  muddy  army.”  Death  of  Louis  X. 

Jean  I  posthumous.  Accession  of  Philip  the  Tall.  Salic  Law. 
Energy  of  the  new  King.  His  death.  Accession  of  Charles  the 
Fair.  He  dies  without  an  heir.  Extinction  of  the  direct  line 
of  the  Capetians.  Who  is  to  succeed  to  the  French  Crown  ? 

THE  great  King  had  been  able  to  realize,  during  his  last 
days,  the  reaction  which  would  be  produced  against 
his  work. 

The  feudal  bonds  are  broken.  The  vassals  of  a  manor  are 
no  longer  united  to  their  patron.  The  feudal  lordship  is  in  a 
state  of  disintegration.  What  becomes  of  the  bond  of  love  ? 
Why,  where  are  the  snows  of  yester  year  ? 

A  single  baron  has  become  proprietor  of  several  chatellanies. 
In  each  he  can  only  reside  for  part  of  the  year  :  in  several  he 
does  not  live  at  all,  being  replaced  by  a  seneschal  who  thinks 
only  of  the  dues  to  be  delivered  and  makes  himself  hated. 

“The  people  have  not  much  opinion  of  the  nobles,”  Philip 
the  Tall  will  say. 

These  divisions  in  the  interior  of  each  fief  and  of  each  town 
are  complicated  by  the  divisions  between  the  provinces.  The 
Albigensian  War  has  sown  profound  hatreds.  The  North  has 
certainly  extended  over  the  South  its  administrative  action,  its 
intellectual  and  artistic  influence  ;  but  deep  down  in  the  heart 
the  ferments  have  remained.  In  the  provinces  to  the  south 
of  the  Loire,  writes  towards  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century 
the  continuator  of  Girard  de  Frachet,  “  those  who  wished  to 
break  away  were  numerous.” 

422 


THE  END  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 


Among  the  Flemish  the  same  thing  is  happening. 

But,  behold,  the  Nobles  seek  to  profit  by  the  embarrassment 
with  which  the  Crown  is  overwhelmed  by  the  war  in  Flanders, 
which  has  broken  out  again.  44  The  moment  has  come,”  they 
think,  44  to  reconquer  our  rights.”  The  Nobility  of  Burgundy, 
of  Artois,  and  of  Picardy  form  a  federation  directed  against 
the  King.  At  the  head  of  the  movement  is  a  lord  of  Picardy, 
the  Sire  de  Fiennes.  And  from  Beauvaisis,  Vermandois,  and 
Ponthieu  support  flows  in.  The  Nobles  ally  themselves  to  the 
44  commons,”  that  is  to  say,  to  the  popular  class  of  the  towns. 
The  subventions  demanded  for  the  war  in  Flanders  provide  the 
pretext  for  the  rebellion. 

In  order  to  limit  the  extent  of  the  movement,  Philip  the 
Fair  had  forbidden,  by  an  edict  of  the  6th  October  1314,  the 
tournaments  which  gathered  together  the  Nobles  of  several 
provinces  ;  but  the  impulse  had  been  given. 

On  the  24th  November  the  44  alliances  ”  formed  in  Burgundy, 
in  Champagne,  and  in  Forez  joined  those  of  Beauvaisis, 
Ponthieu,  and  of  Artois.  The  Nobility  of  a  great  part  of  the 
kingdom  were  thus  in  open  revolt. 

Our  barons  no  longer  wish  to  allow  themselves  to  be  plucked  ; 
but  above  all,  they  do  not  intend  to  allow  themselves  to  be 
governed  by  the  44  paltry  folk  ”  of  the  royal  council  : 

We  are  turned  upside  down 
By  villeins  and  servants  ; 

Paltry  folk  who  have  come 
To  the  Court  and  become  masters, 

Folk  who  sew,  cut,  and  snip. 

For  the  rest,  if  the  King  did  not  wish  to  listen  favourably 
to  the  grievances  of  his  barons,  they  are  prepared  to  44  enter 
on  a  dance  against  him.” 

The  new  King,  Louis  X,  was  a  young  man  of  twenty  years. 
Very  young  and  inexperienced,  he  found  himself  in  the  midst  of 
the  greatest  difficulties.  Contrary  to  what  has  been  too  often 
said,  Louis  showed  himself  a  resolute  follower  of  the  policy  of 
his  father  ;  but  the  44  allied  ”  barons,  as  well  as  the  feudal  lords 
who  belonged  to  the  royal  Court,  the  great  palatines,  believed 
that  the  moment  had  come  to  get  rid  of  the  44  little  people.” 
The  coalition  sought  a  head  in  the  ostentatious  Charles  of  Valois, 

423 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


uncle  of  Louis  X.  They  obtained  the  dismissal  of  the  principal 
ministers  of  Philip  the  Fair,  of  Enguerran  de  Marigny,  of  the 
treasurer,  Michel  de  Bordenai,  and  of  Raoul  de  Presles,  “  principal 
advocate  ”  to  the  Parliament.  The  Chancellor,  Pierre  de 
Latilly,  Bishop  of  Châlons,  had  to  hand  over  the  seals  to 
Etienne  de  Mornay,  clerk  of  the  chamber  to  Charles  of  Valois. 

Pierre  de  Latilly  and  Raoul  de  Presles  were  thrown  into 
prison.  The  “  principal  advocate  ”  was  accused  of  witch¬ 
craft,  and  was  put  to  the  torture.  His  strength  protected  him. 
Enguerran  de  Marigny  concentrated  on  himself  the  unchained 
passions.  Louis  X  attempted  to  save  him  ;  but  in  vain.  He 
was  accused  of  peculation.  The  last  campaign  in  Flanders  had 
ended  in  the  retreat  of  the  royal  troops.  Marigny,  it  was  said, 
had  been  bought  by  the  Flemish.  And  behold  that  precisely, 
at  the  fair  of  Ecouis,  many  flags  belonging  to  him  were  hung. 

And  well  it  was  known  to  all 
That  this  honour  was  done  to  him 
Because  of  the  treaty  he  had  made.  .  .  . 

( Geoffroi  de  Paris.) 

The  condemnation  of  Marigny  was  pronounced  on  30th 
April  1315.  In  the  midst  of  a  hostile  crowd  he  was  taken 
to  Montfaucon.  Public  opinion,  of  which  Geoffrey  of  Paris  is 
the  echo,  is  not  deceived  :  Marigny  has  been  condemned 

Only  at  the  request  and  the  instance 
Of  all  the  high  barons  of  France.  .  .  . 

Moreover,  the  people  did  not  delay  in  going  back  on  their 
prejudices.  Philip  the  Tall  is  to  render  justice  to  the  best 
servants  of  his  father.  Lie  will  have  the  skeleton  of  Marigny 
taken  down  from  the  gibbet,  “  where  it  had  a  long  time  hung,” 
and  will  have  it  interred  in  the  church  of  the  Monks  of 
Chartreux.  He  will  give  £10,000  to  his  children  ;  and 
then  to  Raoul  de  Presles,  Michel  de  Bordenai,  and  to  Pierre 
d’Orgemont  he  will  restore  their  confiscated  goods. 

But  the  leagues  of  Nobles  were  reconstituted  in  nearly  all 
the  provinces.  The  Nobles  wished  to  return  to  the  conditions 
which  had  ruled  their  ancestors  at  the  beginning  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  before  the  time  of  Philip  the  Fair  and  before 
Saint  Louis  ;  the  return  to  the  right  of  private  war. 

424 


THE  END  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 


The  situation  was  strained  to  such  a  point  that  open 
hostilities  were  on  the  point  of  breaking  out.  In  Artois  the 
insurgents  are  about  to  find  a  head  in  the  person  of  Robert, 
grandson  of  Robert  II,  killed  at  Courtrai,  and  son  of  Philip  of 
Artois,  who  had  died  in  1298  as  the  result  of  a  wound  received 
at  the  battle  of  Furnes.  Robert  II  had  left  a  daughter,  Mahaut, 
married  to  Otto  III,  Count  of  Burgundy  (Franche-Comté), 
whom  the  King  put  in  possession  of  the  Comté-pairie  of  Artois 
in  preference  to  the  young  Robert. 

In  a  memoir  to  the  King  drawn  up  by  the  Countess  of  Artois 
the  situation  of  the  different  parties  in  the  town  of  St.  Omer 
is  very  clearly  shown.  At  the  head  of  the  town  is  a  châtelaine, 
who  out  of  opposition  to  the  Countess  Mahaut,  suzerain  of  the 
province,  takes  the  part  of  the  “  allies.”  The  sheriffs  and  the 
patricians,  in  opposition  to  the  châtelaine,  make  common  cause 
with  Mahaut,  and  remain  faithful  to  the  King.  Finally  the 
common  people  of  St.  Omer,  through  hatred  of  the  Patricians, 
take  the  part  of  the  châtelaine  against  the  Countess,  while  the 
rural  population,  out  of  hatred  of  the  country  squires,  remain 
faithful  to  her  as  well  as  to  the  King. 

This  scheme  of  parties  is  infinitely  precious  to  the  historian. 
The  same  divisions  are  reproduced  in  part  everywhere.  This 
will  be  the  classing  of  parties  during  the  first  three-quarters 
of  the  Hundred  Years  War. 

Under  the  orders  of  the  lords  of  Fiennes  and  of  Picquigny, 
the  insurgents  invaded  the  big  towns  ;  they  there  proclaimed 
the  revolution  in  the  public  squares  at  Calais,  at  Audruicq, 
Guines,  St.  Omer,  Hesdin,  Boulogne,  Amiens,  Térouanne,  and 
in  twenty  other  places. 

There  was  a  similar  situation  in  Burgundy. 

And  Louis  X  had  engaged  in  a  new  campaign  in  Flanders. 
Moreover,  he  resolved  to  give  way  by  yielding  satisfaction  to 
the  44  allies  ”  as  far  as  possible.  He  treated  separately  with  the 
Nobility  of  each  province. 

To  the  Normans  he  granted,  on  19th  March  1315,  the  famous 
charte  aux  Normands ,  which  was  to  remain  the  very  constitution 
of  the  province,  up  to  the  Revolution  ;  but  the  charters  given 
by  him  to  the  other  great  fiefs  will  only  have  an  ephemeral  life. 
For  this  there  is  a  reason  :  it  is  not  that  the  charter  to  the 

425 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Normans  is  better  drawn  up  than  the  others  ;  but  Normandy 
still  lived  under  a  different  social  constitution  from  that  of  the 
other  provinces.  We  have  dealt  with  this  above.  Normandy 
did  not  know  those  hierarchies,  those  aristocratic  “  super¬ 
positions,”  so  complicated  in  arrangement,  produced  by 
spontaneous  formation  from  the  feudal  aristocracy.  It  was 
adaptable  to  administrative  reform. 

The  charters  which  Louis  X  is  about  to  give  to  the  different 
provinces  will  not  be  identical  :  the  charter  to  the  Normans 
is  of  pedestrian  character  ;  the  charter  to  the  people  of 
Languedoc  (1st  April  1315)  swarms  with  reminiscences  of  Rome. 
The  charters  to  the  Burgundians  and  the  Picards  (April  and 
May  1315)  were  dictated  by  an  aristocratic  caste  anxious  to 
recover  its  ancient  privileges  ;  and  this  character  was  accentu¬ 
ated  in  the  charter  to  Champagne  (May  1315).  The  King 
agreed  no  longer  to  exercise  justice  in  the  lands  of  the 
barons.  The  escutcheons  of  the  arms  of  France  which  in¬ 
dividuals  fixed  to  the  front  of  their  houses  in  order  to  place 
themselves  immediately  under  the  royal  authority  were 
removed.  But  in  these  same  charters,  the  articles  which 
concern  the  towns  have  some  opposite  tendencies  ; 
the  royal  authority,  far  from  being  restricted,  is  there 
strengthened. 

The  inability  of  the  “  Alliances  ”  of  1314-15  to  establish  a 
representative  regime  similar  to  that  of  the  English  has  been 
noted.  We  must  not  hold  the  promoters  of  the  movement 
responsible  for  this.  It  was  the  country  which,  by  its  traditions 
and  social  formation,  was  not  suited  to  receive  it.  After  some 
centuries  only,  when  the  traditions  and  the  effects  of  this  for¬ 
mation  shall  be  effaced,  will  the  country  be  able  to  accept  a 
representative  régime. 

In  fact,  there  is  no  point  in  talking  here  (as  has  been  done) 
of  “  liberty  ”  ;  there  is  no  point  in  inquiring  why  France  was 
not  a  free  country.  France  was  as  free  a  country  as  England — 
freer  indeed  ;  but  her  liberty  conformed  to  her  social  forma¬ 
tion,  just  as  it  is  true  that  England  had  a  liberty  in  conformity 
with  hers.  And  if  one  freely  grants  that  the  representative 
regime  is  not  incompatible  with  the  liberty  of  a  people,  at  least 
it  is  not  an  essential  condition  of  it,  any  more  than  the  colour 
426 


THE  END  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 


of  the  clothes  in  which  the  people  in  question  is  wont  to  dress 
itself. 

Louis  X  had  been  forced  by  the  war  in  Flanders  to  make 
these  concessions.  The  autumn  rains  fell  in  torrents,  drenching 
the  low  and  marshy  lands  of  the  Northern  plains.  And  the 
army  of  the  King  became  embogged  in  the  mud  without 
reaching  the  enemy,  whence  the  name  given  to  this  campaign  : 
4 4  the  muddy  army.” 

Shortly  afterwards  Louis  X  died  at  Vincennes  in  the  night 
of  4th-5th  June  1316.  He  was  not  yet  twenty-eight  years 
old.  As  far  as  his  youth  had  permitted,  he  had  governed  with 
wisdom.  His  death  was  to  cause  the  gravest  difficulties. 

By  his  second  wife,  Clemence  of  Hungary,  Louis  X  had  a 
son,  born  posthumously,  John  I.  Born  in  the  night  of  the 
13th-14th  November  1316,  he  died  a  few  days  later. 

This  was  the  first  time  since  the  accession  of  the  Capetians 
that  the  throne  was  without  a  male  heir  born  of  the  preceding 
King. 

Three  pretenders  claimed  the  throne  :  Philip  the  Tall, 
brother  next  in  age  to  Louis  X  ;  Charles  of  Valois,  his  uncle, 
the  brother  of  Philip  the  Fair  ;  and  lastly,  Duke  Eude  of 
Burgundy,  the  brother  of  Marguerite  of  Burgundy,  first  wife 
of  Louis  X. 

Charles  of  Valois,  an  ostentatious  and  needy  prince,  accepted 
money,  and  Philip  the  Tall,  profiting  by  the  fact  that  he 
had  exercised  the  regency,  immediately  acted  as  sovereign. 
He  was  crowned  on  9th  January  1317. 

Philip  the  Tall  was  a  tall  young  man,  in  his  twenty-fourth 
year,  thin,  slender,  long  as  a  day  without  bread.  He  was, 
the  chroniclers  insist,  bigger  than  his  father,  who  already,  like 
his  grandfather,  Saint  Louis,  exceeded  by  a  head  the  lords  of 
his  Court. 

The  contemporary  miniaturists,  who  wished  to  trace  his 
portrait,  in  order  to  mark  this  excessive  height,  naively  make 
him  fold  his  legs  and  bow  his  head,  in  order  to  get  him  to  fit 
into  the  frame  of  the  picture.  But  Philip  V  had  not  the  great 
breadth  of  shoulders  of  his  father  ;  he  was  slender  and  ungainly. 

At  the  ceremony  of  the  consecration,  alone  among  the  great 
personages  of  the  kingdom,  Mahaut  of  Artois  and  Charles  of 

427 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Valois  had  assisted.  Their  peers  had  openly  abstained,  and 
some,  the  old  Duchess  of  Burgundy  and  the  reigning  Duke  of 
Burgundy,  had  put  forward  lively  protestations  in  order  to 
reserve  the  rights  of  Jeanne,  a  child  of  five  years,  the  daughter 
of  Louis  X  and  of  Marguerite  of  Burgundy.  They  demanded 
that  a  decision  should  be  given  by  an  assembly  of  peers.  A 
numerous  4 ‘  parliament  ”  which  comprised  the  nobles  and  the 
religious  of  the  Duchy  of  Burgundy,  another  at  which  the  nobles 
of  Champagne  gathered,  pronounced  in  favour  of  the  little 
princess.  Philip  the  Tall  replied  to  this  by  making  prepara¬ 
tions  for  war. 

He  addressed  himself  to  the  people  of  Paris  ;  he  made  a 
speech  in  which  he  exposed  his  titles  to  the  crown  of  France  ; 
he  visited  several  large  towns.  An  assembly  of  nobles  and 
prelates  mixed  with  some  burgesses  of  Paris  (February  1317) 
approved  Philip  V  and  decided  that  “  Women  did  not  succeed 
to  the  kingdom  of  France.”  A  second  assembly  comprised 
the  representatives  of  some  towns  of  Langue  d’oïl  :  it  was 
also  held  at  Paris  (6th  March  1317)  and  approved  Philip  V, 
while  it  demanded  at  the  same  time  “  that  the  people  should 
be  maintained  in  the  manner  customary  in  the  time  of  Saint 
Louis,  and  that  it  should  be  permitted,  in  case  of  disturbances, 
to  repulse  force  by  force.”  As  to  the  towns  of  Langue  d’oc, 
Philip  V  convoked  their  representatives  at  Bourges  for  27th 
March  1317.  Through  these  delegates  they  made  a  declaration 
similar  to  that  of  the  towns  of  the  North. 

But  the  “  Allies  ”  did  not  disarm  :  they  had  now  a  good 
reason  to  remain  united  and  to  pursue  the  struggle — the 
rights  to  the  throne  of  the  little  Jeanne,  daughter  of  Louis  X. 

The  Count  de  Nevers  took  the  field  and  was  beaten.  Then 
a  party  of  the  allies  consented  to  some  conferences.  These 
were  held  at  Melun  (June- July  1317).  The  allies  renounced 
the  claim  of  Jeanne  to  the  throne  of  France  ;  they  only  de¬ 
manded  Champagne  and  Navarre,  the  heritage  of  her  grand¬ 
mother,  to  which  the  alleged  Salic  Law  could  not  be  applied. 
On  27th  March  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  also  came  to  an  agreement. 
He  espoused  the  daughter  of  Philip  V,  an  alliance  which  would 
assure  him  Artois  and  Franche-Comté.  As  to  the  little  Jeanne, 
in  compensation  for  the  crown  of  France,  she  received  a  pension 
428 


THE  END  OF  FEUDAL  FRANCE 


of  15,000  Tours  pounds  :  three  millions  in  actual  value.  In 
Maine  and  in  Anjou,  the  allies  were  routed  by  Charles  of  Valois. 
Robert  of  Artois,  the  nephew  of  Mahaut,  had  submitted  in 
November  1316.  Nevertheless,  the  “  alliances  ”  dragged  on 
some  time  still.  It  was  necessary  for  the  Constable  Gaucher 
de  Châtillon  to  march  at  the  head  of  imposing  forces  against 
the  Sires  de  Fiennes  and  de  Picquigny,  whose  castles  were 
destroyed  (1320). 

The  enterprise  of  the  insurgent  barons  did  not  meet  with 
the  approbation  of  the  Parisian  bourgeoisie,  of  whom  the  author 
of  the  Dit  des  Alliés  forms  an  echo.  He  rejoices  over  their 
disappointment  : 

They  have  made  a  storm 
Of  March  ;  but  like  a  white  frost 
It  will  soon  have  passed  away.  .  .  . 

It  was  a  March  storm  which  gave  warning  of  an  agelong 
disturbance. 

Philip  the  Tall  died  at  Longchamps  in  the  night  of  the 
2nd-3rd  January  1321.  He  only  left  daughters.  In  virtue  of 
the  principle  he  had  himself  invoked  which  excluded  women 
from  the  throne  of  France,  the  crown  reverted  to  his  younger 
brother,  who  became  Charles  the  Fair. 

When  Charles  IV  dies  at  the  Chateau  of  Vincennes  on 
1st  February  1328,  he  will  leave  behind  not  only  no  male  heir, 
but  not  even  a  brother  who  can  hold  the  crown.  What  is  to 
happen  ? 

Three  new  claimants  were  in  view  : 

Philip,  Count  d’Evreux,  husband  of  Jeanne  of  Navarre, 
daughter  of  Louis  X  ;  the  King  of  England,  Edward  III,  grand¬ 
son  of  Philip  the  Fair  by  his  mother  Isabella,  wife  of  Edward  II  ; 
finally  Philip,  Count  of  Valois,  son  of  Charles  of  Valois,  brother 
of  Philip  the  Fair.  The  assembly  of  the  barons,  faithful  to 
the  alleged  Salic  Law,  gave  the  crown  to  Philip  of  Valois. 

Sources. — The  contemporary  chroniclers,  published  for  the  most  part 
in  tomes  xx.-xxiii.  of  the  Historiens  de  la  France  (D.  Bouquet).  The 
documents  published  in  the  following  works  : 

Historical  Works. — Le  Huguer,  Histoire  de  Philippe  le  Long ,  tome  i., 
“Le  Règne”  1897  ;  Dufayard,  “ La  Réaction  féodale  sous  les  fils  de  Philippe 
le  Bel,”  Revue  Historique,  1894  ;  Louis  Artonne,  Le  Mouvement  de  1314  et 

429 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


es  chartes  provinciales  de  1315,  1912  ;  P.  Viollet,  Comment  les  femmes  ont 
été  exclues  en  France  de  la  Couronne,  Paris,  1893  ;  Ch.  Y.  Langlois’  works 
quoted. 


Is  it  not  remarkable  that  the  Capetian  dynasty  should 
have  come  to  the  throne  at  the  epoch  when  feudal  France  was 

being  founded,  to  disappear  when  feudal  France 
Conclusion  to  begins  to  decay  ?  For  more  than  three  centuries 

o^Fradal^  the  Capetians  presided  over  the  destinies  of  a 
France.  country  which  was  building  up  about  their 

throne,  with  the  sole  resources  of  its  national 
genius  and  of  its  traditional  virtues,  a  civilization  peculiar  to 
itself.  In  the  course  of  these  three  centuries  the  French  lived 
under  social  forms  drawn  by  them  from  the  bosom  of  the 
family  in  which  they  were  born  and  where  they  had  grown, 
and  which  they  developed  from  generation  to  generation,  until 
they  made  of  it  public  institutions  extended  to  the  whole 
nation.  And  it  was  also  this  which  gave  its  beauty  to  the 
French  civilization  and  formed  its  brilliance,  originality,  power, 
and  popular  savour.  Who  shall  celebrate  in  terms  worthy 
of  it  the  France  of  the  castles  and  of  the  cathedrals,  of  the 
crusades  and  tournaments,  the  France  of  the  religious  orders, 
of  chivalry  and  of  the  communes,  the  France  of  the  chansons 
de  geste ,  of  the  sewing-songs,  and  of  the  fables  ? 


430 


CHAPTER  XIX 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 

Philip  of  Valois. — His  accession.  Homage  of  the  King  of  Eng¬ 
land.  Robert  of  Artois.  Origin  and  causes  of  the  Hundred 
Years  War.  The  rupture  with  Edward  III.  The  Flemish  and 
Van  Artevelde.  The  Brittany  Succession.  John  of  Montfort 
and  Charles  of  Blois.  Battle  of  Creçy  (26th  August  1346).  The 
fall  of  Calais  (3rd  August  1347).  Opposition  between  the  popular 
class  ( le  commun ,  minores)  and  the  Nobility  and  Patricians 
(majores).  Death  of  Philip  of  Valois  (22nd  August  1350).  John 
the  Good.— He  causes  the  Constable  of  France,  the  Count  d’Eu, 
to  be  put  to  death.  The  Battle  of  the  Thirty  (27th  March  1351). 
Changes  in  the  currency.  Charles  the  Bad,  King  of  Navarre. 
Battle  of  Poitiers  (19th  September  1356).  The  captivity  of 
King  John.  The  Great  Companies.  Bertrand  du  Guesclin. 
Etienne  Marcel.  The  Jacquerie  (May-June  1358).  Assassina¬ 
tion  of  Etienne  Marcel  (31st  July  1358).  The  Peace  of  Bretigny 
(8th  May  1360).  Return  of  King  John.  Death  of  Charles  of 
Blois.  John  the  Good  returns  to  England,  where  he  dies  on 
8th  April  1364.  Charles  the  Wise. — Victory  of  Cocherel  (13th 
May  1364).  Du  Guesclin  in  Spain.  Peter  the  Cruel  and  Henry 
of  Trastamara.  The  appeals  of  Aquitaine  rekindle  the  war. 
French  and  English  on  the  sea.  The  Great  Schism.  Administra¬ 
tion  of  Charles  V.  Death  of  du  Guesclin  (14th  July  1380).  Death 
of  Charles  V  (16th  September  1380).  Charles  the  Well-Beloved. — 
Troubles  which  mark  the  beginning  of  his  reign.  Isabel  of 
Bavaria.  The  government  of  the  Marmousets.  Crusade 
against  the  Barbary  Pirates.  Assassination  of  Olivier  de 
Clisson.  Expedition  of  Brittany.  Madness  of  the  King.  Louis 
of  Orleans  :  antagonism  between  his  policy  and  that  of  the 
House  of  Burgundy.  Richard  II,  son-in-law  of  Charles  VI,  is 
deposed  by  Henry  of  Lancaster  ;  renewal  of  the  war.  Jean  sans 
Peur  (the  Fearless).  He  causes  Louis  of  Orleans  to  be  assassin¬ 
ated  (23rd  November  1407).  The  Cabochiens.  The  Ordinance 
Cabochienne.  Peace  of  Bourges  between  the  Duke  of  Burgundy 
and  the  Orleans  party  (14th  July  1412).  Accession  of  Henry  V 
to  the  English  throne  (20th  March  1413).  Battle  of  Agincourt 
(25th  October  1415).  Charles  the  Dauphin,  lieutenant-general  of 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


the  kingdom  (14th  June  1417).  Armagnacs  and  Burgundians. 
Assassination  of  John  the  Fearless  (10th  September  1419).  Treaty 
of  Troyes  (21st  May  1420).  Death  of  Henry  Y.  Henry  VI, 
King  of  England,  proclaimed  King  of  France  at  St.  Denis.  Jeanne 
d’Arc. — The  King  of  Bourges.  State  of  France.  Defeat  of 
Verneuil  (17th  August  1424).  Mont  St.  Michel  and  the  Castellany 
of  Vaucouleurs  Domrémy.  The  voices  of  the  Maid.  Chinon. 
Jeanne,  chef  de  guerre.  The  relief  of  Orleans  (8th  May  1429). 
The  victory  of  Patay  (18th  June).  The  consecration  at  Reims 
(17th  July).  Charles  VII  falls  back  on  the  Loire.  In  his  com¬ 
pany  Jeanne  comes  to  Compiègne.  She  is  taken  by  the  Bur¬ 
gundians  (23rd  May  1430).  The  trial  of  Rouen.  Death  of  the 
heroine  (29th  May  1431).  Charles  the  Victorious.— Reconcilia¬ 
tion  with  the  Duke  of  Burgundy.  Treaty  of  Arras  (21st 
September  1435).  Popular  risings  against  the  English.  Battles 
of  Formigny  (15tli  April  1459),  and  of  Castillon  (17th  July 
1453).  The  government  of  Charles  VII  :  the  little  people  of 

the  King’s  Council. 


Philip  of 
Valois. 


CHARLES  THE  FAIR  only  left  a  daughter.  An  assembly 
of  the  Grandees  of  the  kingdom  hastened  to  declare 
women  incapable  of  succeeding  to  the  throne  of 
France,  thus  setting  aside  the  King  of  England,  Edward  III, 
the  grandson,  by  his  mother  Isabella,  of  Philip  the  Fair,  and 

gave  the  crown  to  Philip  of  Valois,  nephew  of 
Philip  the  Fair. 

Philip  of  Valois  was  consecrated  at  Reims 
on  the  29th  May  1328. 

The  death  of  Charles  the  Fair  extinguished  the  Capetian 
line  which  had  furnished  so  many  princes  remarkable  for  their 
energy,  their  far-sightedness,  and  their  virtues.  In  the  new 
dynasty  we  remark  the  qualities  and  the  defects  of  their  ancestor, 
Charles  of  Valois — showy,  brilliant,  chivalrous,  a  friend  of  the 
arts  and  of  the  elegant  life,  but  having  neither  a  robust  good 
sense,  a  sense  of  right,  nor  pure  habits,  which  were  characteristic 
of  the  great  Capetians.  Such,  notably,  is  Philip  of  Valois. 

We  have  seen  how  feudal  customs,  after  having  brought 
brilliance  and  prosperity  to  the  country,  had  for  this  very  reason 
ceased  to  have  any  raison  d'être.  This  was  the  underlying 
cause  of  the  Hundred  Years  War.  Historians  have  formed  the 
habit  of  judging  the  feudal  epoch  from  this  deplorable  war* 
although  it  was  only  that  epoch  in  disorganization. 

432 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


To  this  deep-lying  cause  are  joined  accidental  causes.  We 
can  trace  its  origin  to  two  treaties,  concluded  by  illustrious  and 
profoundly  wise  princes  who  nevertheless  were  unable  to  foresee 
the  consequences  of  the  agreement  arranged  by  them.  The 
first  is  the  Treaty  of  Paris  (1259),  concluded  between  Saint  Louis 
and  Henry  III,  King  of  England,  by  which  the  King  of  France 
made  over  again  some  provinces  confiscated  from  John  Lack- 
land,  but  gave  to  the  feudal  homage,  which  bound  the  King 
of  England  to  the  King  of  France,  as  vassal  to  suzerain,  the 
force  of  a  written  document.  Saint  Louis  had  created  this 
situation,  intolerable  in  course  of  time,  of  a  vassal  as  powerful 
as  his  suzerain  and,  by  the  fact  of  his  vassalage,  installed  in 
arms  in  the  kingdom  of  which  he  was  subject.  The  second 
treaty  is  that  of  Montreuil- sur-Mer,  signed  in  1299  by  Philip 
the  Fair  and  Edward  I,  strengthened  in  1803  by  the  second 
Treaty  of  Paris.  Philip  the  Fair  thought  that  by  it  he  had 
settled  the  question  of  Aquitaine.  Lie  married  his  sister 
Marguerite  to  Edward  I,  King  of  England,  and  his  daughter 
Isabella  to  Edward  II,  the  eldest  son  of  Edward  I.  The  son 
who  was  born  of  the  union  of  Marguerite  and  Edward  I  would 
assume  the  crown  of  Aquitaine,  while  the  son  born  to  Edward  II 
would  preserve  the  crown  of  England.  By  the  separation  of 
the  provinces  of  the  south-west  of  Franc  efrom  England, 
Philip  the  Fair  hoped  to  put  an  end  to  the  question  of 
Aquitaine,  an  incessant  source  of  conflict  since  the  marriage 
of  Eleanor  with  Henry  Plantagenet.  Unfortunately,  Edward  I 
and  Marguerite  had  no  children,  and  when  the  three  sons  of 
Philip  the  Fair  had  themselves  died  without  male  issue,  Edward 
III  claimed  the  throne  of  France  on  account  of  his  mother. 
And  in  this  way  the  treaties  of  Paris  and  Montreuil,  far  from 
establishing  peace  between  the  crowns  of  France  and  England, 
as  their  framers  had  thought,  were  on  the  contrary  the  source 
of  the  longest  and  gravest  struggle  which  has  stained  our 
annals  with  blood. 

The  claims  to  the  crown  of  France  which  Edward  I  was  to 
put  forward  did  not  rest,  moreover,  on  any  foundation.  Even 
if  one  admitted  the  rights  of  the  female  line,  the  rights  of 
Jeanne,  daughter  of  Louis  X,  married  to  Philip  of  Evreux,  would 
take  precedence  over  those  of  Isabella  of  LTance  on  the  death 

2  E  433 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


of  Louis  X,  the  unquestioned  King,  of  whom  Jeanne  was  the 
immediate  heir.  Philip  of  Valois  made  compensation  to  her 
by  the  surrender  of  Navarre. 

But  these  rights  were  only  a  pretext.  We  have  seen  how 
the  exercise  of  English  sovereignty  over  Guienne  had  become 
practically  impossible.  But  England  in  the  Middle  Ages  could 
not  do  without  Guienne,  from  which  it  drew  essential  commodities, 
notably  wines.  The  rôle  of  Guienne  vis-à-vis  the  English  in 
the  fourteenth  century  has  been  compared  to  that  of  their 
colonies  to-day. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  have  seen  the  rapid  increase  of  the 
royal  domain  in  the  thirteenth  century  :  the  great  conquests  of 
Philip  Augustus.  Philip  the  Bold  added  by  inheritance  Poitou, 
Auvergne,  Toulouse,  Rouergue,  Albigeois,  Agenais,  and  Comtat. 
Champagne  came  to  the  Crown  by  the  marriage  of  Philip  the 
Fair.  We  have  just  noted  the  conquests  of  this  last  King,  and 
now  comes  Valois,  which  is  added  in  its  turn  by  the  accession 
of  Philip  VI.  The  royal  power  had  had  neither  time  nor  means 
to  assimilate  these  successive  additions  ;  whence  numerous 
differences,  the  inevitable  dissensions  between  these  countries 
and  the  old  royal  domain.  And,  elsewhere,  we  have  seen  the 
reaction  against  the  reforms  of  Saint  Louis  and  of  Philip  the  Fair. 

This  general  situation  did  not  escape  the  notice  of  the  English 
monarchs.  They  had  made  the  most  skilful  efforts  to  make 
themselves  liked  by  the  people  of  Guienne.  They  allowed  their 
subjects  in  France  the  greatest  liberties  and  endeavoured  to 
assure  their  prosperity.  It  has  been  said  that  the  English 
suzerainty  over  Aquitaine  was  limited  to  providing  “  the  witness 
and  the  help  to  its  gradual  emancipation.”  There  were  few 
English  at  Bordeaux,  few  foreign  troops.  The  jurade  of  Bor¬ 
deaux  governed  Gascony  :  and  the  country  experienced,  under 
the  distant  British  sovereignty,  a  flourishing  prosperity. 

Moreover,  up  to  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century,  as  Froissart 
states,  Bordeaux,  Bayonne,  and  the  frontier  towns  of  Gascony 
will  “  nobly  ”  defend  the  English  honour.  One  will  see  the 
towns  of  Bordelais  form  a  league  against  the  French  ;  they  will 
repel  the  overtures  made  by  the  representative  of  the  King  of 
France  :  “If  the  French  ruled  over  us,  they  would  maintain 
their  customs  ;  besides,  we  prefer  to  be  English,  since  thus  we 
434 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


were  born  :  they  keep  us  unfettered  and  free  ”  (Froissart). 
If  the  French  gain  a  victory  over  the  English,  the  people  of 
Bordeaux  will  call  it  “  the  bad  day.”  Viollet-le-Duc  has  noted 
that  during  the  whole  of  the  fourteenth  century  the  English 
invasion  was  not  considered,  over  a  good  part  of  the  territory 
of  France,  as  a  foreign  invasion.  And,  similarly,  M.  Bemont 
has  been  able  to  observe  that  it  will  be  only  from  the  reign  of 
Henry  V  that  the  national  sentiments  of  the  English  against 
the  French  will  be  excited. 

The  English  policy  was  supported  by  the  Flemish  against  the 
King  of  France  and  the  French  Kings  acted  in  Scotland  as  the 
English  did  in  Flanders.  In  1335  we  shall  see  Philip  VI  fitting 
out  a  fleet.  Some  French  men-at-arms  will  land,  in  the  spring 
of  the  year  1336,  on  the  coast  of  Scotland. 

Philip  of  Valois  had  hardly  ascended  the  throne  when  he 
sent  messengers  to  Edward  III,  claiming  from  him  liege  homage 
for  the  lands  which  he  possessed  in  France,  and,  pending  the 
rendering  of  this  homage,  the  Bishop  of  Arras  and  the  Sire  de 
Craon  were  delegated  by  him  in  Aquitaine  to  sequestrate  the 
revenues  belonging  to  the  English  monarch.  And  the  appeals 
became  more  and  more  frequent.  The  Sire  de  Navailles,  who 
called  himself  a  creditor  of  the  King  of  England,  caused  lands 
and  castles  belonging  to  his  debtor  to  be  seized  by  the  King 
of  France. 

In  Flanders  the  social  struggles  were  far  from  being  appeased  ; 
but  the  Count  of  Flanders,  Louis  de  Nevers,  had  passed  to  the 
side  of  the  Patricians,  with  the  result  that  the  people  of  Bruges 
had  arrested  him  and  shut  him  up  in  the  Grocer’s  Hall. 

At  the  appeal  of  his  vassal,  Philip  of  Valois  marched  against 
them.  The  Flemish,  moreover,  and  even  the  popular  party,  were 
not  united.  Once  again  the  people  of  Ghent  separated  them¬ 
selves  from  those  of  Bruges.  But  the  men  of  Bruges  believed 
that  they  would  repeat  the  day  of  Courtrai.  Armed  with  their 
goedendags ,  long  iron-covered  staves,  they  entrenched  them¬ 
selves  on  Mont  Cassel,  the  eminence  which  dominates  the 
plain  of  the  North.  The  French  army  was  commanded  by 
the  King  in  person  ;  the  men  of  Bruges  marched  under  the 
orders  of  their  burgomaster,  no  knight  having  consented  to  put 
himself  at  their  head.  The  engagement  took  place  on  23rd 

435 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


August  1328.  The  miracle  of  Courtrai  was  not  repeated.  The 
men  of  Bruges  were  cut  to  pieces.  Almost  the  entire  French 
army  had  been  destroyed  at  Courtrai  ;  almost  the  entire  army 
of  Bruges  was  destroyed  at  Cassel.  Of  16,000  combatants 
hardly  3000  escaped.  The  corpses  were  heaped  about  that  of 
the  burgomaster,  Colin  Zannekin.  The  French  had  lost  hardly 
twenty  men. 

However,  on  3rd  June  1329,  Edward  III  decided  to  come  and 
take  the  oath  of  homage  to  the  King  of  France  for  his  lands  of 
Aquitaine.  The  ceremony  took  place  in  the  Cathedral  of  Amiens. 
But  he  paid  only  simple  homage,  not  liege  homage,  which  made 
a  vassal  the  man  of  his  suzerain.  And  as  the  King  of  France 
demanded  liege  homage,  Edward  insisted  on  a  delay  in  order  in 
England  to  study  at  leisure  the  reciprocal  obligations  of  the 
two  Crowns.  By  letters  of  30th  March  1331,  Edward  III  in 
the  end  declared  that  he  had  taken  at  Amiens,  within  the 
hands  of  the  King  of  France,  the  oath  of  liege  homage. 

He  did  not,  however,  hold  himself  engaged  by  this.  The 
reciprocal  situation  of  the  crowns  of  France  and  England  was 
bound  to  produce  a  conflict.  Here  it  is  rising  from  a  secondary 
incident. 

Robert  of  Artois,  the  brother-in-law  of  Philip  VI,  had  been 
set  aside  from  the  crown  of  Artois  in  favour  of  his  aunt,  Mahaut. 
He  appealed  on  the  matter  to  Parliament  and,  to  support  his 
rights,  caused  some  false  documents  to  be  drawn  up.  The 
trick  was  discovered.  Robert  of  Artois,  who  had  taken  flight, 
was  sentenced  in  default,  his  goods  confiscated,  and  himself 
banished  the  kingdom.  He  took  refuge  in  England,  where  he 
set  himself  to  excite  Edward  III  against  the  King  of  France, 
encouraging  him  to  claim  his  rights  to  the  crown  of  the  fleur-de- 
lis  (1332-34).  Edward  prepared  for  war,  endeavouring  to 
form  a  coalition  against  France,  as  his  grandfather  had  done. 
Learning  of  the  intentions  of  the  English  Prince,  Philip  of 
Valois  resolved  to  get  in  the  first  blow.  He  ordered  his  vassal, 
the  Count  of  Flanders,  to  arrest  the  subjects  of  the  King  of 
England,  who  were  found  in  his  territory.  There  were  many 
English  in  Flanders  as  a  result  of  the  active  trade  between  the 
two  countries.  The  English  country  districts  supplied  their 
wool  to  the  drapery  industry  of  Flanders.  Edward  retorted  by 
436 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 

stopping  the  exportation  of  wool.  The  looms  of  the  great  towns, 
Bruges,  Ypres,  and  Ghent,  ceased  to  weave  (1336).  Edward  em¬ 
phasized  the  bearing  of  his  edict  by  causing  to  be  sent,  in  great 
quantities,  sacks  of  English  wool  to  the  manufacturing  towns  of 
Brabant.  A  movement  towards  emigration  among  the  Flemish 
artisans  was  seen  taking  shape.  Very  justly  the  great  Flemish 
cities  were  much  excited  by  this. 

It  is  the  moment  when  the  famous  burgess  of  Ghent,  Jacques 
van  Artevelde,  comes  on  the  scene.  He  assumed  the  rôle  of 
the  Bruges  leaders,  Breidel  and  Coninc,  in  the  time  of  Philip 
the  Fair.  With  an  eloquence  as  great  as  that  of  Coninc,  he 
addressed  himself,  like  him,  to  the  artisans  of  the  nation.  A 
decisive  assembly  was  held  at  la  Biloke  on  28th  December  1337. 
Artevelde  did  not  intend  to  break  with  the  King  of  France,  the 
suzerain  of  the  people  of  Ghent,  but  to  conclude  an  economic 
alliance  with  England  in  order  to  safeguard  the  industry  of  the 
town.  The  agitation  became  so  strong  that  Louis  de  Nevers, 
the  Count  of  Flanders,  found  himself  forced  to  relax  the  reins 
of  government  which  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  tribune  of 
Ghent. 

The  decision  of  the  people  of  Ghent,  foreseen  by  Edward  III, 
had  been  preceded  by  letters  of  defiance  sent  by  the  English 
monarch  to  the  King  of  France.  Philip  of  Valois  had  sum¬ 
moned  Edward  to  deliver  to  him  Robert  of  Artois.  The  King 
of  England  refused.  The  letters  of  defiance,  dated  from  West¬ 
minster,  19th  October  1337,  were  taken  to  Paris  by  the  Bishop  of 
Lincoln.  The  war  began  in  this  end  of  the  year  1337  ;  it  was 
only  to  close  in  1453. 

It  has  been  rightly  pointed  out  that  the  men  of  Ghent  who 
rose  at  the  voice  of  van  Artevelde  intended  it  as  much  against 
the  great  families,  the  Patricians,  the  “  rich  men  ”  of  their  own 
town,  as  against  the  King  of  France.  In  Guienne,  the  party 
of  the  King  of  England  will  be  very  important  ;  but  it  will  be 
very  far  from  including  the  whole  country.  The  high  Nobles 
and,  in  the  towns,  the  Patricians  will  be  for  the  King  of  France. 
In  the  whole  of  the  first  half  of  the  Hundred  Years  War,  up 
to  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  we  can  be  certain  that  when 
a  town  declares  for  the  King  of  France,  that  the  aristocratic 
party,  the  Patricians,  supported  by  its  clientele,  has  got  the 

437 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


upper  hand  there  ;  when,  on  the  contrary,  a  locality  44  turns 
English,”  it  is  a  sign  that  the  commonalty,  the  popular  party,  has 
taken  in  hand  the  direction  of  the  city.  This  is  an  essential 
characteristic  of  the  prolonged  struggle. 

And  these  divisions  will  go  on  splitting  up,  multiplying 
themselves,  breaking  into  small  particles  which  will  spread 
everywhere  :  in  face  of  the  two  great  parties  opposed  to  one 
another,  the  one  leaning  on  the  shield  of  the  fleur-de-lis,  the 
other  on  the  shield  of  the  leopards  ;  the  one  calling  on  St. 
Michael,  and  the  other  St.  George  ;  the  one  bearing  the  white 
cross,  the  other  the  red  cross  ;  neighbouring  lords,  enemies  for 
some  personal  reason,  towns  and  villages  whose  territories 
adjoin,  have  revived  ancient  rivalries  ;  even  in  a  family  in¬ 
testine  dissensions  will  find  food  and  force  to  continue.  44  The 
storm  of  civil  war,”  writes  Jean  Chartier,  44  rose  everywhere  ; 
between  the  children  of  the  same  house,  between  men  of  the 
same  rank  were  committed  the  outrages  of  cruel  wars  ;  the 
multiplied  wars  of  the  lords  became  mixed  up  in  these  conflicts.” 
Moreover,  we  see  the  desolation  caused  by  it.  It  is  no  longer 
only  the  great  battles,  the  organized  expeditions,  which  afflict 
the  country  :  it  is  war  divided  up  indefinitely,  multiplied  in 
thousands  and  thousands  of  sections  with  an  ill-omened  viru¬ 
lence  and  raging  in  the  smallest  out-of-the-way  corners. 

Jean  de  Bueil  gives  a  picture  of  it  : 

44  In  going  my  way,  I  found  myself  in  a  very  desolate  and 
deserted  country,  because  there  had  been  war  between  the 
inhabitants  of  the  country  for  a  long  time,  and  they  were  very 
poor  and  few  in  number  ;  for,  I  may  tell  you,  it  seemed  rather 
a  place  for  wild  beasts  than  a  habitation  for  people.” 

Such  was  the  Hundred  Years  War. 

And  so  will  it  be  up  to  the  epoch  of  Jeanne  d’Arc.  The 
duration  of  the  war,  the  excesses  of  the  soldiery,  the  foreign 
language  spoken  by  the  44  Goddam,”  and  their  fashions  which 
were  not  ours,  will  have  then  progressively  made  them 
foreigners  and  therefore  enemies  for  the  immense  majority  of 
the  French.  And  one  may  say  that  from  this  day  the  English 
were  defeated.  Certainly  the  magnificent  impulse  given  by 
Jeanne  d’Arc  will  have  contributed  to  this  result,  but  the  true 
cause  of  it  will  be  that,  with  time,  the  national  sentiment  will 
438 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


have  formed  itself  under  calamities  against  the  invader.  From 
this  moment  he  will  have  lost  ;  and  he  was  only  able  to  hold 
out  so  long  because  in  every  place  up  till  then  he  had  found 
part  of  the  population  ready  to  support  him,  namely,  the 
popular  faction.  From  this  point  of  view  the  rôle  played  by 
the  Burgundian  party,  which  will  be  discussed  later  on,  will  be 
most  interesting  to  note  :  it  will  make  its  appearance  at  the 
moment  when  the  national  sentiment  begins  to  turn  against 
the  English.  The  Burgundian  princes  are  Frenchmen,  and 
they  will  rally  the  popular  elements  when  these  withdraw  from 
the  English,  while  the  Royalist  elements  will  group  themselves 
about  the  great  family  of  the  Armagnacs  placed,  for  more  than 
a  century,  at  the  head  of  the  southern  Nobility. 

The  Hundred  Years  War  was  a  social  war  ;  we  would  dare 
to  say  a  civil  war  quite  as  much  as  a  foreign  war,  and  perhaps 
in  the  first  part  much  more  a  civil  war. 

The  King  of  England  had  very  carefully  prepared  to  open 
the  campaign.  The  English  monarchy  had,  in  short,  remained 
a  monarchy  of  a  military  type  such  as  William  the  Conqueror 
had  established  it  :  the  Capetian  monarchy,  although  it  had 
counted  great  warriors  like  Henry  I,  Louis  the  Fat,  and  Philip 
Augustus,  had  none  the  less  remained  a  patriarchal  monarchy. 
In  England,  to  meet  the  expenses  of  the  war,  the  tax  on  wool 
had  been  doubled.  On  the  English  side  we  are  faced  with  a 
series  of  measures  in  the  most  modern  spirit  :  the  teaching  of 
French  to  children,  a  veto  on  the  export  of  horses,  the  establish¬ 
ment  of  a  military  service  in  some  sort  obligatory,  the  en¬ 
couragement  of  games  with  the  bow  and  the  manufacture 
or  improvement  of  weapons  for  shooting  ;  and  the  con¬ 
sequences  of  these  are  going  to  show  themselves  brilliantly. 
Whilst  in  France  people  were  still  concerned  with  chivalrous 
knighthood  and  with  tournaments,  the  English  princes  had 
learned  the  importance  of  infantry  in  the  new  war.  This 
infantry,  composed  of  archers  and  of  pikemen,  formed  two- 
thirds  of  their  effectives.  “  The  archers,”  writes  Simeon  Luce, 
“  were  armed  with  a  bow  of  yew  so  easy,  supple,  and  portable 
that  one  could  draw  three  saiettes  or  barbed  arrows  in  less  time 
than  one  would  take  to  launch  a  brick  or  vireton  (arrow  with  a 
conical  end  of  iron)  Avith  a  Genoese  or  French  cross-bow.  The 

439 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


pikemen  were  armed  with  a  long  knife,  or  rather,  with  a  lance, 
like  a  bayonet  lightty  bent  round,  provided  at  the  end  with  a 
long  staff  as  a  handle.  The  pikemen  attempted  to  introduce 
their  blades  into  the  joints  of  the  armour.  Farewell  to  the  fine 
military  prowess  of  the  noble  knights. 

The  manufacture  of  the  bow  had  reached  a  great  perfection 
in  England.  While  the  brilliant  idea  had  arisen  in  France  of 
placing  a  tax  on  the  cords  of  bows — oh,  French  administration, 
how  ancient  are  thy  devices  ! — the  English  had  encouraged  and 
developed  in  every  way  this  branch  of  war  industry,  and  we 
shall  see  the  King  of  England  so  jealous  for  his  country  in  this 
superiority  in  the  combats,  that  the  safe-conducts  of  French 
prisoners  in  England  will  only  be  issued  with  a  veto  on  the 
import  across  the  Channel  of  bows  and  arrows.  Comines  will 
write  still  under  Louis  XI  that  44  the  English  are  the  flower 
of  the  World’s  archers.” 

Lastly,  there  was  the  discipline  of  the  English  army — a 
rigorous  discipline.  It  was  remarkable,  above  all,  in  the 
cavalry.  Albert  Malet  says  very  justly  that  the  King  of 
England  had  in  his  army  a  44  cavalry,”  while  the  King  of 
France  had  still  always  only  a  44  chivalry.” 

The  English  army  did  not  know  those  hierarchies  in 
authority,  constables,  marshals,  war  leaders,  not  to  mention 
seigniorial  and  municipal  commands,  with  which  the  French 
army  was  embarrassed.  A  lieutenant  of  the  English  monarch, 
clothed  with  his  authority,  commanded  immediately  all  his 
men  ;  while  the  French  army,  the  image  of  the  society  of  which 
it  was  the  expression,  continued  to  be  ranged  in  those  ranks 
of  feudal  suzerainties  which  formed  the  nation.  In  this  once 
more  the  two  armies  reflected  the  two  peoples  for  whom  they 
fought.  May  we  recall  what  we  have  already  said  on  the 
matter  ? 

Thus  we  shall  see  the  English  gaining  surprising  victories 
in  view  especially  of  the  small  number  of  combatants  which 
they  opposed  to  the  French  armies.  There  is  not  one  of  the 
great  English  victories — Creçy,  Poitiers,  Agincourt,  Verneuil, 
the  Battle  of  the  Herrings — in  which  the  French  had  not  at 
their  disposal  a  numerical  superiority  which  should  have  been 
crushing.  The  garrisons  of  places  conquered  by  the  English 
440 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


numbered  hardly  a  hundred  men  :  at  times  only  ten  or  twelve. 
It  is  true  that  at  long  last  this  superiority  of  organization 
and  of  command  will  turn  round  and  come  back  to  the  French. 
From  the  time  when  artillery  appears,  the  French  will  secure 
in  it,  in  a  few  years,  a  mastery  of  which  their  adversaries  will 
strive  in  vain  to  rob  them.  Jeanne  d’Arc  herself  will  win 
distinction  in  it,  and  the  soldiers  will  admire  the  expert  in¬ 
genuity  with  which  she  disposed  the  bombards  and  culverins. 

44  In  this  year  1338,”  writes  the  Continuator  of  Nangis,  44  the 
Flemish,  particularly  the  men  of  Ghent,  carried  away  by  the 
spirit  of  rebellion,  expelled  the  Count.  Gathering  a  great 
number  of  the  lower  people  ( multos  minoris  populi),  they  rose 
against  the  great  ( contra  majores)  and  did  them  great  injury  ; 
.  .  .  and  they  declared  that  it  was  not  against  the  kingdom  of 
France  that  they  felt  resentment.  .  .  .” 

But  Edward  III  pressed  them  to  take  up  arms  against 
Philip  of  Valois.  Artevelde  replied  that  they  could  not  rebel 
against  their  sovereign  ;  but  perhaps  a  remedy  could  be  found 
for  these  scruples.  Why  should  not  the  King  of  England  bear 
with  his  arms  the  arms  of  France  ?  Was  he  not  the  legitimate 
heir  of  the  French  Crown  ?  44  And  we  shall  obey  you,”  said 

Artevelde,  46  as  the  King  of  France.” 

Edward  hesitated  ;  he  hesitated  much.  Had  he  not  sworn 
homage  to  Philip  of  Valois  and  confirmed  his  homage  by  sealed 
letters  ?  At  length  he  decided  to  follow  the  counsel  of  the 
weaver  of  Ghent. 

The  first  important  battle  was  a  naval  engagement,  fought 
on  24th  June  1340  off  PEcluse  (Sluis)  in  Flanders.  The  French 
fleet  went  out  to  meet  the  English  fleet,  which  was  carrying 
an  army  of  invasion  to  France.  A  reinforcement  of  Flemish 
vessels  which  came  up  unexpectedly  at  the  crisis  of  the  action 
turned  the  balance  in  favour  of  the  English.  The  French  fleet 
was  in  great  part  destroyed  ;  its  admiral,  Nicholas  Behuchet, 
counsellor  of  the  King  and  maître  des  comptes ,  was  hung  at  the 
masthead.  This  defeat  had  the  gravest  consequences  for  the 
cause  of  the  French  King,  who  could  no  longer  dream  of  taking 
the  offensive  by  carrying  his  arms  into  the  territory  of  the 
enemy. 

In  the  year  1341  a  truce  was  concluded  at  the  instance  of 

441 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


the  Sovereign  Pontiff.  In  1343,  in  order  to  meet  the  needs  of 
the  Crown,  Philip  of  Valois  established  a  tax  which,  under 
the  name  of  gabelle ,  was  to  have  a  long  and  unhappy  course. 
We  know  that  the  law,  in  virtue  of  which  Philip  of  Valois 
reigned  in  France  to  the  exclusion  of  women,  bore,  without  any 
reason  for  that  matter,  the  name  of  the  Salic  Law.  In  alluding 
to  this  tax  on  salt,  Edward  III  said  jestingly  that  at  least  his 
rival  justified  his  title  of  “  Salic  ”  King. 

Yet  events  in  Flanders  turned  against  the  English. 
Artevelde  had  so  strongly  established  his  authority  that  his 
fellow-citizens  began  to  murmur.  Jealousy  is  the  curse  of 
democracies.  By  his  energy,  by  his  valour,  by  his  authority, 
Artevelde  had  raised  himself  above  the  common  herd.  The 
luxury  of  his  house  at  Ghent,  the  retinue  he  affected,  his 
magnificent  ways,  the  brilliant  establishment  of  his  daughter, 
were  an  offence  to  the  sentiment  of  equality.  We  have  seen 
that  a  town,  by  the  very  fact  of  setting  itself  up  as  a  commune, 
became  a  feudal  person.  This  is  an  important  fact,  and 
sufficient  account  has  not  been  taken  of  it. 

Bruges  united  in  a  brilliant  panoply  the  escutcheons  of  the 
towns  of  which  she  was  suzerain,  and  after  having  conquered 
Bruges,  Ghent  established  over  the  majority  of  the  towns  of 
Flanders  a  domination  which  was  to  be  little  different  from  a 
feudal  suzerainty.  In  the  years  1343-44  some  resistance  is 
shown  towards  the  powerful  city,  at  Langemarck,  at  Arden- 
bourg,  at  Oudenarde.  On  the  day  of  the  17th  July  1345,  some 
men  of  the  working  class  raised  a  riot  about  the  house  of  van 
Artevelde.  The  weavers,  under  the  pressure  of  their  dean, 
Gerard  Denis,  claimed  a  rendering  of  accounts.  Where  does 
the  money  go  ?  Another  democratic  refrain  !  Artevelde 
demanded  a  delay  of  three  days,  which  was  refused.  The  great 
citizen  attempted  to  fly  by  way  of  the  stables  of  his  house,  where 
he  was  killed. 

The  war  between  England  and  France  seemed  as  if  it  was 
dying  down  when  it  broke  out  again  through  the  question  of  the 
succession  in  Brittany.  John  III,  surnamed  the  Good,  Duke  of 
Brittany,  son  of  Arthur  II,  Duke  of  Brittany,  Count  of  Richemont 
and  of  Montfort,  died  in  1341,  without  a  legitimate  heir.  His 
younger  brother,  the  Count  Gui  de  Penthièvre,  who  had  been 
442 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


his  heir,  had  died  before  him,  but  he  left  a  daughter,  Jeanne 
la  Boiteuse  (the  Lame),  married  to  Charles  of  Blois,  nephew  of 
Philip  of  Valois.  He  left  also  a  second  brother,  son  of  Arthur  II 
and  by  a  second  wife,  the  Count  Jean  IV  de  Montfort.  If 
it  had  been  a  case  of  the  throne  of  France,  John  de  Montfort 
would  have  been  the  heir  in  virtue  of  the  alleged  Salic  Law  ; 
but  Philip  of  Valois  declared  that  the  Salic  Law  only  applied 
to  the  crown  of  France,  and  pronounced  himself  in  favour  of 
Jeanne  de  Penthièvre  and  of  Charles  of  Blois.  Immediately 
Edward  III  intervened  and  supported  the  claims  of  Jean  de 
Montfort.  We  note  that  in  this  each  of  the  two  sovereigns 
acted  directly  contrary  to  his  own  principles  :  because  if  Philip 
of  Valois  shut  his  ears  to  the  Salic  Law  when  the  crown  of 
Brittany  was  in  question,  Edward  III,  who  repudiated  the  whole 
Salic  Law  concerning  the  crown  of  France,  appreciated  its 
excellence  at  the  moment  when  the  question  touched  the 
succession  of  Arthur.  In  general,  Breton  Brittany  declared 
for  John  de  Montfort,  and  French-speaking  Brittany  for 
Charles  of  Blois. 

Charles  was  a  strange  figure,  and  he  excited  the  admiration 
even  of  his  adversaries.  He  was  a  replica  of  Saint  Louis,  but 
with  still  greater  piety,  more  austerity,  a  more  mystical  exalta¬ 
tion.  In  preference  even  to  the  gospel  he  read  the  Golden 
Legend  and  delighted  himself  in  these  mysterious  and  trifling 
stories.  He  himself  resembled  a  saint  of  the  Golden  Legend. 
The  waves  of  the  sea,  it  was  said,  stopped  in  front  of  him  : 
the  sea  went  back  at  the  sweetness  of  his  gesture.  When  he 
walked  with  bare  feet  in  the  snow,  bearing  the  shrine  of  St. 
Yve,  flowers  sprang  up  in  the  prints  left  by  his  feet,  mingling 
the  carnation  of  their  corollas  and  their  verdant  wimples  with 
the  whiteness  of  the  winter’s  carpet.  The  war  went  at  first 
in  favour  of  Charles  of  Blois.  Jean  de  Montfort,  taken  prisoner, 
was  taken  to  the  Louvre  (1341).  The  conflict  might  have  seemed 
to  be  at  an  end  when  Montfort  escaped  and  came  to  kindle 
once  more  the  ardour  of  his  partisans. 

The  battle  of  Creçy  was  fought  on  28th  August  1346.  The 
English  army  was  almost  a  modern  army  in  the  bulk  of  the 
popular  element  which  it  included.  There  were  10,000  English 
archers,  6000  Irish  infantry,  12,000  Welsh.  The  army  of  the 

443 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


King  of  France  was  a  throng  of  jostling  dukes  and  counts  and 
noble  bannerets.  There  was  no  order,  no  command  :  a  feudal 
army  which  knew  no  longer  the  solid  cadres,  the  limited  bands 
which  had  formed  the  strength  of  the  first  Crusaders.  The 
French  army  is  about  to  collapse  of  itself  much  more  than  it 
will  succumb  to  the  blows  of  the  enemy.  Of  the  battle  of 
Creçy,  the  Chronicle  of  the  First  Four  Valois  has  made  this 
suggestive  record  : 

“  King  Philip  commanded  that  the  Genoese  crossbowmen 
should  come  to  grips  with  the  English  ;  they  were  soon  dis¬ 
comfited  and  took  to  flight  towards  the  French,  who  made  an 
end  of  them.  And  then  King  Philip  joined  battle  with  the 
English,  and  there  was  a  very  hard  struggle  and  wonderful 
fight.  The  English  archers  were  in  ambush  behind  the  hedges 
and,  by  their  fire,  killed  many  horses  and  men.  And  on  this 
day  men  were  killed  by  horses  ;  for  as  the  French  were  thinking 
to  range  themselves,  their  horses  were  falling  dead.  What 
need  to  prolong  the  story  ?  By  hastiness  and  disarray  were 
the  French  discomfited.  King  Philip  performed  marvellous 
feats  of  arms,  but  fortune  turned  against  him.”  The  English 
archers  fired  their  arrows  with  their  white  feathers  in  such 
numbers  that  they  seemed  like  snow  falling  from  the  sky. 
We  remark  that  the  English  made  use  of  three  bombards. 
Is  this  the  most  ancient  example  of  the  employment  of  firing 
bombs  in  European  war  ? 

The  effectives  of  the  French  army,  considerably  more  than 
60,000  men,  were  double  the  English  contingents.  It  was  at 
Creçy  that  was  killed  in  the  front  ranks  the  old  Count  of  Luxem¬ 
burg,  the  King  of  Bohemia,  John  the  Blind.  The  brave  knight 
was  indeed  blind  :  but  he  had  demanded  that  he  should  be 
led  to  the  first  ranks,  in  order  that  there  he  could  still  deliver 
some  good  blows.  The  pages  consecrated  by  Froissart  to  this 
episode  have  remained  justly  celebrated. 

On  the  2nd  September  1346,  the  English  appeared  under 
the  walls  of  Calais,  and  began  this  famous  siege.  The  garrison 
which  defended  the  town  was  composed,  for  the  most  part, 
of  knights  of  Artois  under  the  orders  of  a  Burgundian,  John 
de  Vienne.  The  siege  lasted  eleven  months.  Calais  only 
capitulated  on  3rd  August  1347.  Here  the  well-known  episode 
444 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


of  the  burgesses  of  Calais  falls  into  place.  Six  of  the  principal 
burgesses  of  the  town — Eustache  de  St.  Pierre,  Jean  d’Aire, 
Jean  de  Fiennes,  André  d’Ardres,  Jacques  and  Pierre  de 
Wissant — came  in  their  shirts,  with  ropes  about  their  necks, 
to  put  themselves  at  the  disposal  of  Edward,  who  wished  to 
put  the  town  to  fire  and  sword.  The  Queen  of  England 
obtained  their  pardon.  The  episode  has  been  recounted  by 
Jean  le  Bel,  and  popularized  by  Froissart.  Its  authenticity 
has  been  called  in  question,  since  we  shall  see  Eustache  de 
St.  Pierre,  supporting  the  English  domination,  charged  with 
municipal  functions  by  those  whom  he  had  fought.  But 
Siméon  Luce,  after  a  critical  study  of  the  documents,  has 
pronounced  in  favour  of  its  authenticity.  A  great  number 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Calais,  not  wishing  to  become  English, 
left  the  town  in  order  to  remain  under  the  suzeraintv  of  the 

J 

King  of  France. 

The  taking  of  Calais,  after  the  battle  of  Creçy,  was  a  matter 
of  high  importance  for  the  English.  They  would  have  for  the 
future,  on  the  French  coast  of  the  Channel,  a  valuable  port  of 
disembarkation.  Calais  was  to  remain  in  English  hands  until 
1558.  A  month  and  a  half  after  the  battle  of  Creçy,  on  17th 
October  1346,  the  Scottish  claimant,  David  Bruce,  who  had 
invaded  England,  beaten  at  Neville’s  Cross,  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  victors.  Everywhere  fortune  smiled  on  the  enemies 
of  the  fleur-de-lis. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  popular  sentiments  :  the  hostility 
which  separated  the  aristocracy  and  the  Patricians  on  the  one 
side  from  the  common  people  on  the  other.  The  defeat  of 
Creçy  went  to  accentuate  this  hostility.  Note  the  Remon¬ 
strances  addressed  to  the  King  of  France,  in  the  name  of  the 
big  towns,  in  the  assembly  of  the  States-General  meeting  at 
Paris  on  the  30th  November  1347. 

The  remarkable  Continuator  of  Nangis  notes  with  indigna¬ 
tion  the  pomp,  the  growing  luxury  of  the  rich  and  of  the 
knights.  The  misfortunes  of  the  country  do  not  touch  them  : 
they  care  only  for  feasting,  dancing,  and  dicing,  while  the 
common  people  stoop  and  weep  under  the  burden.  It  was  at 
this  epoch  also,  says  the  Continuator  of  Nangis,  that  the  people 
of  high  rank  began  to  call  the  workers  in  the  fields  “  Jacques 

445 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Bonhomme  ”  in  derision,  and  the  custom  spread  among  the 
English  themselves.  The  expression,  however,  was  old.  In 
the  thirteenth  century  the  authors  of  the  fables  call  the  French 
peasant  “Jacques  Bonhomme.”  “  Jacque  ”  designated,  more¬ 
over,  a  part  of  the  clothing  which  the  rural  worker  wore  in 
war  :  a  short  shirt  stuffed  with  rough  material  forming  a 
cushion — the  hauberk  of  the  peasants. 

The  nobles  on  their  side  cast  the  responsibility  for  the  defeat 
on  the  commoners.  “  The  King  of  France,”  reports  Froissart, 
“  said  that  he  wished  to  make  war  only  with  noblemen,  and 
that  to  draw  into  the  battle  the  common  people  was  nothing 
but  an  encumbrance,  because  these  people  in  the  fray  melted 
like  snow  in  the  sun.  Hence  he  would  have  none  of  them 
again,  except  the  crossbowmen.” 

And  to  fill  up  the  measure,  here  comes  the  Black  Death, 
a  bubonic  plague,  arrived  from  Asia  via  the  port  of  Genoa. 
One  knows  the  pages  of  Boccaccio  at  the  beginning  of  his 
Decameron  :  “  There  was  not  a  day  that  thousands  of  them 
did  not  fall  sick,  who,  through  not  being  helped  or  succoured 
in  any  way,  nearly  all  died.  And  there  were  quite  a  number 
who  died  in  the  streets,  day  and  night  ;  and  others  who  died 
in  their  houses  first  made  their  neighbours  aware  that  they 
were  dead  by  the  stench  of  their  decaying  corpses.”  The 
plague  spread  in  France  during  1347.  In  towns  like  Avignon 
four  hundred  people  died  daily,  and  eight  hundred  in  Paris. 
The  people  called  the  scourge  the  “  Great  Death.”  Then 
there  was  the  famine  of  1348.  Froissart  says  that  “  the  third 
part  of  the  world  ”  died  of  the  double  scourge.  Jean  de 
Venette  (the  Continuator  of  Nangis)  goes  further,  asserting 
that  hardly  two  out  of  twenty  people  escaped.  This  would 
confirm  the  old  Burgundian  saying  : 

In  one  thousand  three  hundred  and  forty-eight, 

At  Nuits  from  a  hundred  there  remained  eight. 

At  first  the  Jews  were  held  responsible  for  the  calamity. 
They  were  supposed  to  have  poisoned  the  wells.  Some  thou¬ 
sands  of  Jews  were  burnt  alive.  The  monk  Jean  de  Venette 
does  not  fail  to  admire  the  courage  which  many  of  them  dis¬ 
played,  especially  the  women.  They  threw  themselves  into 
the  flames  which  were  to  consume  their  husbands,  and,  lest 
446 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 

their  children  should  be  baptized  after  their  death,  they  threw 
them  in  also.  Clement  VI  intervened.  He  gave  refuge  to  the 
Jews  in  his  dominions  of  Avignon,  and  shielded  them  by  papal 
protection.  Then  came  an  exaggerated  outbreak  of  mysticism, 
complicated  by  nervous  crises.  The  Flagellants  tortured 
themselves  with  their  own  hands,  swallowing  nails  and  lighted 
objects.  And  when  the  scourge  had  gone  (1349),  there  came, 
by  way  of  a  reaction  of  the  senses,  an  afflux  of  debauchery  and 
luxury,  a  liberation  of  brutal  appetites. 

To  this  period,  however,  belong  certain  acts  which  are  to 
throw  a  consoling  light  on  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Philip  of 
Valois,  and  show  that  the  French  monarchy  had  not  fallen  so 
low  as  appearances  might  lead  us  to  imagine.  Charles  IV,  the 
German  Emperor,  seeks  an  alliance  with  Philip  VI.  It  is  true 
that  Charles  IV  was  the  son  of  the  glorious  Jean  Y  Aveugle  (the 
Blind)  who  fell  in  the  French  ranks  at  Creçy.  The  treaty  was 
signed  at  Metz  on  the  28th  December  1347.  And  this  treaty 
produced  its  effects.  There  will  be  seen  coming  from  Germany, 
and  especially  from  the  Western  marches,  contingents  of 
German  cavalrymen  and  knights  who  will  usefully  reinforce  the 
troops  of  the  French  prince.  And  then  James  III,  the  King  of 
Majorca  and  suzerain  of  Montpelier,  sells  this  latter  fief  to  France 
for  120,000  golden  crowns  (18th  April  1349).  More  important 
still  was  the  acquisition  of  Dauphiné.  The  district  was  so  named 
because  the  reigning  house  bore  a  dolphin  ( dauphin )  in  its  arms. 
The  suzerain  himself  was  called  the  dauphin.  It  was  on  the  30th 
March  1349  that  the  famous  agreement  was  concluded  by  which 
Humbert  II  yielded  his  magnificent  fief  to  the  eldest  son  of  the 
King  of  France,  on  condition  that  for  the  future  the  son  of  the 
King  should  have  until  his  accession  the  title  of  “  Dauphin.” 
We  know  in  what  a  touching  and  charming  manner  this  engage¬ 
ment  was  kept.  Philip  VI  disbursed  to  Humbert  120,000  gold 
florins  and  besides  a  life  rental  of  22,000  pounds  of  Tours. 

These  were  useful,  but  heavy,  expenses,  and  came  in  addition 
to  those  incurred  by  the  administration  of  the  kingdom  and  the 
war  with  England.  Now  we  have  mentioned  the  yet  rudi¬ 
mentary  character  of  the  financial  organization.  The  principal 
resources  of  the  Crown  were  still  drawn  from  the  revenues  of 
the  royal  domains.  But  we  can  imagine  how  inadequate  these 

447 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


resources  were  under  the  existing  conditions.  It  was  necessary 
to  supplement  them  by  contributions  levied  right  and  left,  in 
an  intermittent,  irregular,  and  unequal  manner,  and  which  were 
even  so  only  obtained  by  means  of  concessions  to  the  feudal 
lordships,  to  the  municipalities,  and  to  individuals,  and  often  to 
the  detriment  of  the  general  good.  And  whatever  repugnance 
the  royal  government  might  have  for  such  an  expedient  it  was 
obliged  periodically  to  have  recourse  to  the  debasement  of  the 
currency  in  the  way  already  described.  The  administration  of 
Philip  VI  did  not  fail  to  give  proofs  of  wisdom.  The  ordinances 
relating  to  the  organization  of  the  profession  of  the  notaries,  of 
the  power  of  the  baillis ,  of  the  Parlements  and  the  Chambre  des 
Comptes,  do  honour  to  the  end  of  the  reign. 

Philip  of  Valois  was  far  from  being  a  great  prince  in  spite  of 
his  courage,  which  won  universal  admiration,  and  his  taste  for 
literature  and  the  arts.  He  loved  pomp,  fine  clothes,  splendid 
feasts,  and  the  brilliance  of  the  life  of  chivalry,  jousts,  and  tour¬ 
naments.  He  liked  also  beautiful  books,  artists,  and  writers, 
and  in  this  his  first  wife,  Jeanne  of  Burgundy,  had  seconded  him 
with  very  sound  taste.  Jeanne  of  Burgundy  and  Philip  of 
Valois  would  have  liked  to  keep  Petrarch  in  France. 

Philip  of  Valois  died  in  the  Abbey  of  Coulombs,  near  Nogent- 
le-Roi,  on  the  22nd  August  1350. 

Jean  II,  called  le  Bon  (the  Good  or  Brave),  the  son  of  Philip 
of  Valois  and  Jeanne  of  Burgundy,  was  to  bring  to  the  throne 
-s-  „  i „  the  defects  and  qualities  of  his  father,  but  in  an 

exaggerated  form,  so  that  the  faults  became 
very  much  graver  still,  and  the  good  qualities,  in  the 
circumstances  under  which  they  were  manifested,  became 
defects.  His  faults  were  obstinacy,  a  passionate  nature,  and 
an  entire  failure  to  appreciate  the  things  which,  in  his  day,  made 
up  modern  life.  His  good  points  were  courage  and  a  very  high 
sense  of  honour.  Hardly  was  he  thirteen  years  old  when  his 
father  had  given  him  to  wife  Bonne  of  Luxemburg,  the  daughter 
of  King  John  of  Bohemia.  She  was  three  years  older  than  her 
young  husband  ;  but  the  two  formed  none  the  less  a  very  united 
couple. 

One  of  the  first  acts  of  King  John  caused  general  stupefac¬ 
tion.  On  his  arrival  in  Paris  he  had  the  Constable  of  France, 
448 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


Raoul  de  Brienne,  Count  of  Eu  and  of  Guines,  seized  and 
beheaded  in  the  Hôtel  de  Nesle.  One  becomes  lost  in  conjecture 
as  to  the  motives  of  this  execution,  which  was  not  preceded  by 
any  judicial  formality.  The  office  of  Constable  was  given  to  a 
lord  of  whom  King  John  was  particularly  fond,  Charles  of 
Castile,  called  Charles  of  Spain,  the  son  of  Alfonzo,  King  of 
Castile,  and  grandson  of  Ferdinand  de  la  Cerda. 

The  war  was  going  on  in  Brittany  between  the  partisans  of 
Jean  de  Montfort  and  those  of  Charles  de  Blois,  but  the  Kings 
of  France  and  England  no  longer  took  part  in  it.  On  the  27th 
March  1351  there  took  place,  44  half-way  between  Josselin  and 
the  castle  of  Ploërmel,  in  a  splendid  sloping  field,  at  the  spot 
called  the  4  Halfway  Oak,’  beside  beautiful  green  bushes  of 
genets,”  on  the  territory  of  the  commune  of  La  Croix-Helléan 
(Morbihan),  the  famous  44  Fight  of  the  Thirty.”  The  encounter 
rose  from  the  defiance  launched  against  each  other  by  two  leaders 
— the  Englishman  Bramborough,  who  commanded  Ploërmel,  and 
the  Frenchman  Beaumanoir,  established  at  Josselin.  The  in¬ 
itiative  came  from  Beaumanoir,  indignant  at  the  bad  treatment 
with  which  the  English  overwhelmed  the  Breton  peasants. 
Each  of  the  two  adversaries  was  to  come  on  the  scene  as  one  of 
a  band  of  thirty  men-at-arms.  The  combat  occupied  a  whole 
day.  In  the  course  of  the  action  Beaumanoir  complained  of 
thirst.  Geoffroi  Dubois  cried  out  to  him,  44  Drink  your  blood, 
Beaumanoir  !  ” 

Beaumanoir  the  Valiant  then  began  to  fail, 

Such  sorrow  and  anger  possessed  him  that  he  was  overcome  with 

thirst.  .  .  . 

At  the  end  of  the  day  all  the  combatants  were  wounded,  but 
the  English  counted  eleven  dead,  among  whom  was  Bram¬ 
borough.  The  survivors  yielded  themselves  as  prisoners  into 
the  hands  of  the  Bretons,  who  held  them  to  ransom. 

The  year  1351  was  marked  by  a  recurrence  of  the  debase¬ 
ment  of  the  coinage.  We  have  shown  in  what  these  measures 
consisted.  The  royal  ordinances  spoke  truly  when  they  said 
that  the  alteration  of  the  gold  and  silver  pieces  was  only  a 
44  way  of  raising  taxes,  more  prompt  and  easier  for  those  who 
collected  them  and  less  burdensome  to  those  who  had  to  pay 

2  F  449 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


them.”  The  King,  in  fact,  did  not  deny  that  the  money  newly 
issued  had  not  the  value  which  was  by  necessity  attributed  to 
it.  The  difference  constituted  the  tax  deducted  beforehand 
for  the  needs  of  the  State.  But  these  frequent  changes,  effected 
in  the  value  of  the  medium  of  exchange,  caused  much  trouble. 
To  remedy  it,  the  traders  and  the  money-changers  as  well  as  the 
public  came  to  take  no  more  account  of  the  nominal  value  of 
the  gold  pounds  or  the  silver  sous,  but  of  their  weight  valued  in 
marks.  Through  this  the  authorities  were  brought  to  vexatious 
or  violent  measures  :  an  oath  demanded  from  the  money¬ 
changers,  traders,  and  hotel-keepers  to  respect  the  ordinances  ; 
espionage,  perquisitions,  confiscations.  Up  to  this  time  the 
alterations  had  been  made  openly,  and,  so  to  speak,  honestly. 
Under  the  pressure  of  circumstances  the  royal  government  is 
to  proceed  to  clandestine  alterations  which  will  become  veritable 
falsifications.  And  lest  the  public  should  learn  of  the  smaller 
proportion  of  gold  or  silver  in  the  alloy  of  the  new  pieces  of 
money,  an  oath  was  demanded  from  the  master  and  employees 
of  the  mints  that  they  would  reveal  nothing.  We  read  in  an 
order  of  September  1351  :  “  Take  care,  on  your  honour,  that 
they  (the  money-changers)  shall  not  know  the  power  (the 
standard  of  the  new  pieces),  under  penalty  of  being  declared 
traitors.” 

When  King  John  ascended  the  throne,  the  silver  mark 
counted  against  five  pounds,  five  sous  ;  at  the  end  of  1351,  it 
counted  as  eleven  pounds.  The  intrinsic  value  of  the  money 
in  circulation  had,  then,  fallen  in  a  year  by  100  per  cent.  These 
alterations  became  more  and  more  frequent,  for  if  the  royal 
power  had  profited  by  circulating,  with  a  smaller  proportion  of 
gold  and  silver,  the  money  which  it  called  in,  it  recast  again  the 
“  weak  ”  money,  with  a  higher  face  value,  and  put  it  in  circula¬ 
tion  at  a  still  higher  assessment.  It  put  into  circulation  again 
sous  of  Tours  or  Paris  of  a  better  alloy,  but  demanding  two  sous 
of  the  previous  issue  for  one  of  the  new.  And,  shortly  after¬ 
wards,  it  recommenced  the  inverse  process.  During  the  first 
ten  years  of  the  reign  of  King  John  the  Tours  pound  changed 
in  value  more  than  seventy  times. 

These  were  certainly  vexatious  measures,  against  which 
modern  historians  vituperate  at  their  ease.  But  in  the  condi- 
450 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


tions  of  the  time  would  they  have  done  better  ?  Is  it  even 
certain  that  they  would  not  have  done  worse  ? 

The  war  had  been  actively  resumed  in  the  South.  The  lesser 
nobles,  who  were  suffering  from  the  decrease  in  the  feudal 
dues,  embittered  against  the  great  nobles  grouped  round  the 
powerful  lord  of  Armagnac,  had  demanded  from  Edward  III 
effective  support,  and  the  English  King  had  sent  to  Aquitaine 
his  own  son,  the  Prince  of  Wales,  the  famous  Black  Prince,  a 
name  he  took  from  the  colour  of  his  armour.  Edward  III  was 
a  prince  of  great  intelligence,  above  all  admirable  in  matters  of 
military  administration.  The  Black  Prince  proved  a  skilful 
strategist,  active,  quick  in  his  decisions,  a  clear-sighted  leader. 
He  was  a  young  man  of  twenty-five  years,  in  the  strength  and 
beauty  of  that  age  at  which  natures  greatly  endowed  accom¬ 
plish  their  most  notable  achievements.  He  loved  swift  horses, 
finely  tempered  weapons,  works  of  art.  He  led  a  luxurious 
life,  but  without  relaxing  the  rigid  strength  of  his  character  and 
will.  A  small  number  of  soldiers  sufficed  him  for  the  subjection 
of  the  land  and  the  pillage  of  refractory  districts.  Moreover, 
on  all  sides,  he  found  help  and  support. 

However,  the  finances  of  the  French  King  were  in  such  a  bad 
state  that  the  pledges  of  the  royal  officers  were  no  longer  ful¬ 
filled.  It  became  necessary  to  resolve  on  the  summoning  of 
the  States-General.  It  was  limited  to  the  country  of  the  langue 
d’oïl,  the  country  of  the  langue  d’oc  being  in  the  hands  of  the 
English.  The  assembly  was  held  in  Paris  in  the  Great  Hall  of 
the  Palace.  The  Provost  of  the  Merchants,  Etiénne  Marcel, 
was  seen  there  for  the  first  time  in  his  popular  rôle.  He  was 
the  spokesman  of  the  good  towns  :  or,  as  it  would  be  expressed 
later,  the  Third  Estate  (le  Tiers).  The  States  realized  their  duty 
and  showed  a  sincere  devotion  to  the  Crown.  They  voted  sub¬ 
sidies  for  the  war,  to  be  paid  by  all,  beginning  with  the  King  and 
royal  family.  They  proclaimed  the  right  of  resistance  “  by 
coalition  ”  to  the  exactions  of  the  royal  officials  and  the  pillage 
of  the  men-at-arms. 

The  States  met  again  in  March  and  November  1356.  This 
time  the  States  voted  a  tax  on  income,  a  progressive  tax  but  with 
a  backward  progression.  Ten  pounds  of  income  was  liable  to 
10  per  cent.  ;  a  thousand  pounds  to  only  2  per  cent.  In  a  later 

451 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


assembly  a  new  imposition  was  granted  to  the  King  by  the 
States,  rising  to  4  per  cent,  on  incomes  lower  than  a  hundred 
pounds  and  to  2  per  cent,  only  on  incomes  higher  than  this 
sum. 

At  first  sight  this  method  of  “  progression  ”  seems  revolting. 
Perhaps  it  will  seem  less  so  if  we  remember  that  these  imposi¬ 
tions  were  destined  for  the  expenses  of  the  war,  and  that  these 
already  weighed  heavily  on  the  feudal  aristocracy,  who  were 
bound  to  the  service  of  the  army  and  at  that  time  proportion¬ 
ately  to  their  income. 

It  has  often  been  asked  why  the  French  burgess  class  and 
the  rural  nobility  itself  did  not  profit  by  the  weakness  and  con¬ 
fusion  into  which  the  Hundred  Years  War  plunged  the  royal 
authority  to  win  public  liberties  by  means  of  the  assembling  of 
the  States,  to  form  a  national  government  under  the  control  of 
representatives  elected  by  themselves,  a  condition  which  to 
some  minds  seems  necessary  for  liberty.  If  the  representatives 
delegated  to  the  States  did  not  direct  their  energies  in  the  sense 
just  indicated,  it  was  because  the  social  and  moral  conditions  of 
the  time  rendered  impossible  the  government  of  the  country 
by  an  assembly  of  elected  delegates.  What  militated  especially 
against  this  kind  of  “  liberty  ” — in  the  singular — was  precisely 
the  “  liberties  ” — in  the  plural — which  the  country  enjoyed  : 
on  all  sides  liberties,  local  franchises,  customs  individual  to  each 
province,  to  each  fief,  to  each  locality,  sometimes  to  a  family. 
We  have  seen  that  the  population  of  the  region  of  Bordeaux  did 
not  wish  to  conform  to  the  “  usages  ”  of  the  French.  It  was 
the  same  with  the  Bretons,  the  Normans,  the  Picards,  and 
Burgundians.  If  a  general  measure,  what  we  should  call  a  law, 
had  been  voted  by  the  majority  in  an  assembly  of  the  States, 
the  good  folk  in  numerous  parts  of  France  would  have  received 
with  blows  of  pitchforks  and  picks  the  officials  commissioned 
to  apply  them.  In  England,  the  Norman  Conquest,  the  level¬ 
ling  of  the  nation  under  the  rude  hand  of  the  reigning  sovereigns, 
the  conquerors,  the  necessity  of  struggling  against  these  latter, 
rendered  parliamentarism  desirable  and  possible.  The  very 
liberties  with  which  France  bristled,  and  the  patriarchal  and 
paternal  authority  which  she  venerated  in  her  Kings,  rendered 
parliamentarism  impossible.  And  one  sees  it  from  these  States 
452 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


of  1356.  The  impositions  voted  by  the  representatives  of  the 
towns  were  repulsed  with  indignation  by  the  very  towns  whose 
delegates  had  caused  them  to  be  adopted. 

At  Arras  the  great  folk  ( les  gros),  i.e.  the  Patricians,  favour¬ 
able  to  the  fleur-de-lis,  declared  that  they  must  pay  ;  but  the 
lesser  folk  [menus)  were  not  of  this  opinion.  On  the  5th  March 
1356,  seventeen  Patricians  are  killed  ;  on  the  7th  March  the 
people  of  Arras  kill  four  more  and  drive  away  the  remainder. 
44  And  thus  the  said  common  people  remain  lords  and  masters 
of  that  town  ”  (Grandes  Chroniques).  But  on  the  27th  April 
Arnoul  d’Audrehem,  Marshall  of  France,  appeared  at  the  head 
of  imposing  forces  ;  he  had  twenty  heads  cut  off  among  those 
who  had  proved  themselves  the  most  rebellious,  and  the  44  Gros  ” 
became  masters  of  the  city  once  more. 

A  new  enemy  had,  however,  ranged  himself  against  King 
John,  one  who  was  destined  to  be  for  him  and  for  his  son, 
the  future  Charles  V,  a  source  of  grave  embarrassment.  A 
young  Prince  of  twenty  years  was  living  in  France,  Charles, 
King  of  Navarre.  He  was  great-grandson  of  Philip  the  Bold, 
by  his  father,  Count  Philip  of  Evreux  (the  son  of  Louis  of  Evreux, 
son  of  Philip  the  Bold),  and  great-grandson  of  Philip  the  Fair 
through  his  mother,  the  only  daughter  of  Louis  le  LIutin 
(Headstrong).  This  Prince  was  called  Charles  the  Bad,  because 
of  the  rather  harsh  way  in  which  he  repressed,  in  1350,  a  rising 
of  the  men  of  Navarre.  The  throne  of  Navarre  had  come  to 
him  through  his  mother,  the  daughter  of  Louis  le  Hutin,  for 
the  Salic  Law,  applied  to  the  crown  of  France,  did  not  apply 
to  that  of  Navarre. 

The  claims  of  Charles  of  Navarre  to  the  French  throne 
would  have  preceded  those  of  Edward  III  if  he  had  wished  to 
bring  them  to  bear  when  with  the  English  monarch  the  suc¬ 
cession  in  the  feminine  line  was  claimed  ;  and  we  shall  see  that 
Charles  will  decide  on  this  course. 

The  monks  of  St.  Denis  draws  the  portrait  of  Charles  the 
Bad  :  44  Lie  was  little  and  full  of  energy,  had  a  penetrating 
mind,  and  expressed  himself  easily  with  natural  eloquence  ; 
he  was  marvellously  adroit.  Above  all,  he  surpassed  all  other 
princes  in  his  affability.”  In  1352  he  had  married  the  Princess 
Jeanne,  daughter  of  Jean  le  Bon.  History  will  judge  him 

453 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


severely.  With  the  good  qualities  of  Charles  of  Navarre  there 
were  mingled  some  shameful  faults  :  a  want  of  character,  a 
lack  of  straightforwardness,  and  a  certain  inclination  to  lower 
things. 

John  the  Good  was  very  fond  of  his  cousin,  Charles  of  Spain. 
We  have  seen  that  he  had  made  him  Constable  after  the  death 
of  Raoul  de  Rrienne.  He  gave  him,  besides,  the  county  of 
Angoulême.  Now,  Charles  of  Navarre  and  his  brothers  had 
some  claims  to  the  County  of  Angoulême  :  whence  arose  a 
rivalry  between  the  two  Charles’s.  It  manifested  itself  one  day 
in  violent  words.  On  the  8th  January  1354,  Charles  of  Spain 
was  lying,  suspecting  nothing,  in  his  bed  at  l’Aigle,  in  the  County 
of  Alençon,  when  the  King  of  Navarre  arrived,  followed  by  the 
Count  of  Harcourt  and  several  companions.  They  pulled  the 
Constable  from  his  bed  and  killed  him  miserably. 

Two  years  had  passed,  and  Charles,  Duke  of  Normandy, 
the  eldest  son  of  John  the  Good,  was  feasting  in  his  castle  of 
Rouen,  to  which  he  had  invited  the  King  of  Navarre,  the  Count 
of  Harcourt,  the  Lord  of  Granville,  and  several  other  boon 
companions  of  Charles  the  Bad,  when  the  door  opens  silently  ; 
King  John  and  several  men-at-arms  enter.  The  King  had  the 
Count  of  Harcourt,  the  Lord  of  Granville,  a  knight,  Maubue 
de  Menesmares,  and  a  squire,  Colinet  Doublet,  seized.  He  had 
them  taken  outside  the  town,  to  the  44  Field  of  the  Tournament  ” 
( Champ  du  Pardon ),  and  there  had  their  heads  cut  off  and  their 
bodies  hanged  to  a  gibbet  (4th  April  1356).  As  to  the  King 
of  Navarre,  he  was  loaded  with  chains  and  shut  up  first  in  the 
Château-Gaillard,  then  in  the  Châtelet  at  Paris.  By  these 
44  cruel  judgments  ”  John  II  avenged  the  assassination  of  his 
Constable. 

We  read  at  this  date  in  the  Chronicle  of  the  First  Four 
Valois  :  44  Edward,  King  of  England,  who  was  very  wise  in 
war,  saw  that  it  was  not  to  his  advantage  to  fight  the  French 
King,  and  returned  to  Calais.  And  then  King  John  sent  him 
a  message  that  he  was  not  acting  like  a  gentleman  in  not 
awaiting  a  battle.  Upon  this  the  English  King  sent  word 
back  that  he  was  a  gentleman,  and  there  should  be  no  lack  of 
battles.”  Alas  !  Edward  III  was  to  keep  his  word  only  too 
well. 

454 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


The  battle  claimed  by  King  John  was  fought  on  the  19th 
September  1356  outside  Poitiers.  The  Black  Prince,  who  had 
just  ravaged  Limousin,  Saintonge,  and  Vendée,  was  returning 
gorged  with  booty.  He  was  followed  by  heavy  wagons  with 
rusty  iron  wheels  groaning  on  their  axles.  He  was  aiming  at 
getting  back  to  Bordeaux  when  a  French  army,  commanded 
by  King  John  in  person,  came  up  with  him.  The  English 
entrenched  themselves  on  the  plateau  of  Maupertuis,  a  league 
from  Poitiers.  Their  position  found  a  natural  defence  in 
enclosures  of  vines  and  quickset  hedges.  The  numerical 
superiority  of  the  French  army  was  such  that  the  Prince  of 
Wales  considered  his  fate  and  that  of  his  men  desperate. 
Through  the  cardinals,  whom  the  Pope  has  sent  to  the 
adversaries  to  engineer  a  peace,  the  Prince  of  Wales  made  a 
proposal  to  King  John,  by  which  all  the  French  prisoners  were 
to  be  set  at  liberty,  the  latest  conquests  of  the  English  should 
be  restored,  notably  Calais  and  Guînes,  and  a  truce  of  seven 
years  be  made.  He  demanded  only  a  free  opportunity  to 
return  to  Bordeaux.  It  would  have  been  the  salvation  of  our 
country  ;  but  King  John  was  boiling  over  with  impatience 
and  anger.  In  his  impetuous  ardour  he  spoke  only  of  falling 
upon  the  enemy.  Plowever,  the  Marshall  de  Clermont  pointed 
out  to  him  that  it  would  be  folly  to  attack  the  English  where 
they  then  were.  He  advised  that  they  should  44  settle  down 
near  them  and  prevent  their  receiving  new  food  supplies.” 
Upon  which  the  Marshall  d’Audrehem  intervened.  He  was  a 
sort  of  colossus,  with  prodigious  strength  and  the  blindest 
courage  ;  which  pleased  King  John  : 

44  Marshall  de  Claremont,”  cried  Aud rehem,  44  you  are  upset 
at  the  sight  of  them  !  ” 

44  To-day  you  would  hardly  be  brave  enough  to  put  the 
muzzle  of  your  horse  against  the  neck  of  mine  !  ” 

The  battle  began.  From  a  distance  the  English  archers 
riddled  with  darts  the  French  cavalry,  who  drew  back  in  con¬ 
fusion.  King  John  put  the  crown  on  the  disorder  by  telling 
the  knights  to  alight.  One  can  imagine  the  fine  jumble  under 
the  English  arrows.  The  maddened  horses  rear.  And  what 
fine  infantry  the  knights  would  make  hampered  by  their 
carapaces  of  iron  !  44  The  clamour  and  uproar  were  heard 

455 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


more  than  three  leagues  away.  And  there  was  great  sorrow 
to  see  the  flower  of  all  nobility  and  knighthood  thus 
given  over  to  destruction  ”  ( Chronique  des  quatre  premiers 
Valois). 

In  the  confusion,  King  John  had  at  least  one  gleam  of  good 
sense.  He  ordered  his  eldest  son  to  retire  from  the  conflict 
and  go  back  into  Poitiers.  As  for  himself,  he  would  not  budge 
from  the  field  of  battle.  Chandos,  the  English  leader,  under¬ 
stood  him  well,  when  he  gave  the  advice  that  the  battle  should 
be  pressed  at  the  spot  where  the  French  King  was,  for  he  would 
let  himself  be  taken  alive  or  cut  to  pieces  rather  than  fall 
back.  King  John,  armed  with  a  battle-axe,  defended  himself 
like  a  lion.  On  his  dust-covered  brow  the  blood  made  little 
furrows.  His  second  son,  known  from  this  day  as  Philip  the 
Bold  (Philippe  le  Hardi),  pressed  close  to  him.  And  “  by  force 
were  taken  the  said  King  John  of  France,  my  lord  Philip  of 
France,  his  son,  the  Count  d’Eu.  .  .  .  And  a  marvellous  number 
of  dukes,  counts,  barons,  knights,  squires,  and  good  serving- 
men  were  killed  in  the  said  battle  :  from  which  followed 
irreparable  loss.” 

Siméon  Luce  has  rightly  said  that  Creçy  was  only  a  defeat  ; 
Poitiers  was  a  disaster.  Its  first  consequence  was  a  recrudes¬ 
cence  of  anger,  hatred,  and  suspicion  among  the  people  against 
the  nobility.  Were  not  the  Nobles  the  cause  of  the  defeat, 
not  only  by  their  inefficiency,  as  at  Creçy,  but  also  by  their 
cowardice  ?  For,  in  fact,  at  Poitiers  the  cavalry  had  fled. 
The  Continuator  of  Nangis  echoes  these  sentiments  with 
vehemence  : 

“  From  this  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom  went  from  bad  to 
worse  ;  the  republic  (respublica) — we  must  not  take  the  word 
in  its  literal  sense — was  falling  to  ruin,  and  brigands  appeared 
on  all  sides.  The  nobles  scorn  and  detest  the  villeins  ;  they 
no  longer  care  for  the  welfare  of  the  King  or  of  their  vassals  ; 
they  tyrannize  over  and  despoil  the  peasants  in  their  villages. 
They  have  no  care  for  the  defence  of  their  country.  To  trample 
on  those  who  are  subject  to  them  and  deprive  them  of  their 
possessions  is  their  sole  preoccupation.  From  this  day  the 
country  of  France  (patria  Francice),  which  was  formerly  glorious 

and  honoured  throughout  the  world,  happy  in  her  wealth  and 
456 


THE  HUN DE EH  YEARS  WAR 

the  benefits  of  peace,  became  the  laughing-stock  of  the  other 
nations.  Oh,  sorrow  !  she  fell  into  scorn.” 

The  author  of  the  Plaint  of  the  Battle  of  Poitiers  expresses 
himself  in  still  more  vivid  terms.  At  Poitiers  the  Nobles 
committed  treason  : 

The  great  treason  which  they  have  long  hidden 
Was  in  that  army  clearly  shown. 

And  by  a  counter-movement,  it  is  towards  the  King  who 
had  fought  so  valiantly  with  his  “  little  child  ”  (Philip  the 
Bold)  that,  in  a  recrudescence  of  affection  and  devotion, 
popular  affection  turns  : 

May  God  comfort  and  protect  our  King 
And  his  little  child  who  has  stayed  with  him  ! 

Salvation  is  to  be  found  in  the  union  of  the  King  and  brave 
folk  : 

If  he  (the  King)  is  'well  advised  he  will  not  forget 
To  take  Jacques  Bonhomme  in  his  great  company, 

Who  will  never  run  away  to  save  his  life, 

as  the  knights  had  done  at  Poitiers. 

In  Paris,  power  passes  into  the  hands  of  the  popular  leaders  : 
the  illustrious  Provost  of  the  Merchants,  Etienne  Marcel,  the 
Archbishop  of  Laon,  Robert  le  Coq,  and  a  knight,  Jean  de 
Picquigny. 

The  Nobles  are  not  only  incapable  and  cowardly,  say  those 
of  the  commonalty  ;  they  devour  the  people  and  rob  the  King. 
They  insist  on  payment  for  the  support  and  wages  of  the 
soldiers  they  take  to  the  army  ;  and  they  are  not  afraid,  in 
order  to  extract  larger  sums  from  the  public  treasury,  to  falsify 
their  accounts,  and  to  pass  off  as  men-at-arms  their  servants, 
valets,  and  pages  : 

When  they  (the  nobles)  show  themselves  to  the  marshalls  to  pass 
muster, 

Their  scullions  and  their  pages  as  soldiers  they  count, 

Thus  there  is  one  for  the  wages  of  four  which  they  take.  .  .  . 

The  people  of  Paris  put  themselves  in  a  state  of  defence. 
“  In  this  year  1356,”  writes  Jean  de  Venette,  “the  Parisians,  in 
fear  of  their  enemies  and  with  no  confidence  in  the  nobles,  hung 
chains  across  the  streets  and  cross-roads  ;  they  dug  moats  round 

457 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


the  walls  in  the  western  part  of  the  town  and  around  the  suburbs 
in  the  eastern,  where  there  had  been  none  up  to  then.  They 
reinforced  the  fortifications  and  built  bastiles,  furnishing  the 
towers  with  balistas,  ammunition,  cannons,  and  engines.  They 
destroyed  the  houses  which  inside  or  out  adjoined  the  ramparts. 
How  many  fine  dwellings  were  then  destroyed  from  top  to 
bottom  to  make  room  for  the  moats  !  ” 

And  the  people  of  Paris  sighed  for  the  return  of  the  King, 
alone  capable,  says  Jean  de  Venette,  of  restoring  the  country. 
The  scourge  of  brigandage  became  a  frightful  calamity.  Some 
of  these  brigands  were  also  real  soldiers.  We  have  already  seen 
the  intimacy  of  a  Richard  Cœur  de  Lion  with  a  Mercadier.  The 
English  army,  victorious  at  Poitiers,  included  a  great  number 
of  these  brigands  :  mercenaries  from  Brabant,  Flanders, 
Hainault,  and  Germany.  After  the  victory  and  the  truce 
signed  for  two  years  at  Poitiers,  on  the  23rd  March  1357,  the 
Black  Prince  left  them  on  French  territory. 

They  took  their  name  from  their  armour,  the  brigandine,  a 
corselet  composed  of  scales  of  iron  joined  by  riveted  nails  ;  but 
other  and  more  reliable  historians,  such  as  Siméon  Luce,  claim 
that  the  brigandine  received  its  name  from  the  brigands. 

Froissart  recounts  their  doings  and  achievements.  44  And 
every  day  poor  brigands  profited  in  robbing  and  pillaging 
towns  and  castles,  and  thus  won  such  great  possessions  that  it 
was  a  great  marvel,  and  some  became  so  rich,  especially  those 
who  constituted  themselves  masters  and  leaders  of  other 
brigands,  that  there  were  some  who  had  as  much  money  as  40000 
crowns  (an  enormous  sum  for  the  period).  To  tell  the  truth, 
what  they  did  was  wonderful  :  they  saw  a  good  town  or  castle 
a  day  or  two’s  journey  away  ;  and  then  they  gathered  together 
twenty  or  thirty  brigands,  and  journeyed  day  and  night  by 
hidden  ways  until  they  entered  this  town  or  castle  which  they 
had  seen,  exactly  at  break  of  day,  and  set  fire  to  a  house.  And 
the  people  of  the  town  thought  that  it  was  a  thousand  men  in 
armour  come  to  burn  the  town  and  so  they  fled  as  best  they 
could,  and  these  brigands  broke  into  houses,  chests,  and  coffers, 
and  took  as  much  as  they  could  find  and  then  went  their  way 
laden  with  plunder.” 

They  gave  themselves  up  to  frightful  excesses.  In  Bour- 

458 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


bonnais  they  had  dug  an  immense  moat  where  a  great  fire 
burned  day  and  night.  The  brigands  called  it  “  Hell.”  If  an 
unfortunate  person  could  not  or  would  not  ransom  himself  : 

44  Throw  him  into  Hell  !  ” 

44  The  fear  of  so  terrible  a  fate,”  writes  Cabaret  d’Orreville, 
44  took  such  a  hold  on  those  threatened  that  all,  in  order  to 
escape  it,  consented  to  give  up  all  their  possessions  to  the 
brigands.” 

The  English  were  not  alone  in  employing  brigands.  Philip 
of  Valois,  in  order  to  induce  the  famous  Croquard  to  enter  his 
service,  offered  to  make  him  a  knight — a  fine  knight  ! — and  to 
pay  him  an  annual  allowance  of  £2000  (400,000  francs  in 
our  present  money).  The  French  King  made  another  bandit 
named  Bacon,  clever  at  surprising  fortresses,  his  usher-at-arms. 
Some  of  these  brigands,  Arnaud  de  Cervolle,  called  the  Arch¬ 
priest,  and  Rodriguez  de  Villandrando,  command  armies,  treat 
with  sovereigns  as  one  power  with  another,  and  play  a  great 
part  in  the  defence  of  the  land.  Some  of  these  leaders  of  com¬ 
panies  belonged  to  the  highest  families,  but  out  of  respect  for 
their  scutcheon  they  hid  their  identity  under  a  nickname. 
44  How  we  rejoiced,”  will  say  one  of  them  named  Aimerigot 
Marchés,  44  when  we  were  riding  at  random  and  met  on  the 
countryside  a  rich  abbot  or  prior,  a  merchant  or  a  caravan  of 
mules  from  Montpelier,  Narbonne,  Limoux,  Fougans,  or  Beziers, 
from  Toulouse  or  Carcassonne,  laden  with  cloth  from  Brussels  or 
Moustier-Villiers,  or  with  furs  coming  from  the  market  at  the 
Lendit  (an  ancient  fair  near  Paris),  or  with  spices  from  Bruges, 
or  silks  from  Damascus  or  Alexandria.  We  could  take  all  or 
ransom  it  as  we  liked.  Every  day  we  got  more  money.  The 
peasants  of  Auvergne  and  Limousin  brought  us  in  our  castle 
corn  and  flour,  bread  ready  baked,  oats  and  litter  for  the  horses, 
good  wines,  oxen,  fat  lambs,  and  sheep,  chickens,  and  game. 
We  were  stuffed  like  kings,  and  when  we  rode  abroad  the  whole 
country  trembled  before  us.  Everything  was  ours,  going  and 
returning.  How  we  took  Carlat,  the  Bastard  of  Compans, 
and  myself  !  and  Chaluset,  Pierrot  le  Béarnois,  and  I  !  How 
we  took  by  escalade,  just  you  and  I  without  any  help,  the 
fortress  of  Merquel,  which  belongs  to  the  Count  Dauphin  !  I 
held  it  only  five  days,  and  got  for  it,  cash  down,  five  thousand 

459 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


francs.  And  I  renounced  another  thousand  for  the  love  of  the 
Count  Dauphin.  By  my  faith,  it  was  a  good  and  fine  life.” 

A  bright  light  was  about  to  shine  through  this  gloom,  and 
it  was  already  shedding  its  first  rays.  In  July  1357  the  Duke 
of  Lancaster  raised  the  siege  of  Rennes  after  a  fruitless  effort 
lasting  nine  months.  Lancaster  had  the  reputation  of  being 
the  best  warrior  of  his  time,  the  inspirer  of  Edward  III.  This 
check,  which  was  to  make  a  great  stir,  and  restore  confidence 
to  the  44  white  crosses,”  was  due  to  a  Breton  gentleman,  Bert¬ 
rand  du  Guesclin.  He  was  born  towards  1320  at  the  Motte- 
Broons,  some  leagues  from  Dinant,  of  a  noble  family.  When 
he  distinguished  himself  at  the  defence  of  Rennes  he  was  only 
seventeen  or  eighteen  years  old.  Strong,  robust,  squat,  with 
an  ugliness  which  was  to  become  proverbial,  not  knowing  how 
to  read  or  write,  he  is  to  be,  through  his  courage,  wisdom,  and 
good  sense,  the  saviour  of  his  country  and  the  idol  of  feminine 
hearts.  Bertrand  du  Guesclin  is  one  of  the  most  complete 
figures  in  the  perfection  of  his  rôle  to  be  met  in  all  history. 

I  think  there  is  none  so  ugly  between  Rennes  and  Dinant, 
Flat-nosed  he  was  and  black,  uncouth  and  clownish, 

wrote  the  poet  Cuvelier,  who  consecrated  to  him  a  poem  in  the 
style  of  the  old  epics.  He  had  a  flat  face  and  green  eyes  : 

Fists  big  and  square  to  carry  the  sword, 

Legs  and  thighs  for  great  endurance. 

As  a  partisan  of  Charles  of  Blois,  he  throws  himself  into 
Rennes,  besieged  by  Lancaster  (3rd  March  1357)  : 

See  him  come  there  along  that  high  road 
With  a  coat  of  mail  black  as  a  pothanger, 

With  six  squires  of  his  household, 

And  carrying  at  his  neck  that  great  axe  ! 

“  By  my  faith,”  said  the  herald  who  saw  the  band, 

“  He  looks  just  like  a  brigand  catching  sight  of  some  merchants.”  .  .  . 

When  the  siege  of  Rennes  was  over,  Du  Guesclin  was 
nominated  captain  of  Mont-St. -Michel  (13th  December  1357), 
that  sublime  fortress  which  was  to  give  an  example,  in 
another  siege,  the  finest  in  all  history,  of  an  undaunted  resist¬ 
ance  of  seventy  years.  At  the  end  of  the  Hundred  Years  War, 
in  spite  of  continual  sieges,  Mont-St. -Michel  will  still  be  French. 
460 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


The  nomination  of  Du  Guesclin  was  made  at  the  request  of  the 
Abbot  of  the  “  Mount.”  “  The  glory  of  Mont-St. -Michel,” 
writes  Siméon  Luce,  “is  to  have  been  the  sanctuary  of  national 
sentiment.  For  ten  years — it  is  now  1357 — during  which  the 
struggle  with  the  English  lasted,  the  monks  had  shown  an 
admirable  patriotism.  Their  abbot,  Nicolas  le  Vitrier,  who 
had  been  born  on  the  picturesque  rock  of  which  the  monastery 
formed  the  crown,  had  armed  his  men  and  servants,  keeping  such 
a  strict  watch  round  the  rock  that  the  English  could  never  set 
foot  on  it.  As  a  reward  the  Dauphin  granted  to  Nicolas  le 
Vitrier  (27th  January  1357)  that  the  captain  of  Mont-St. -Michel 
should  henceforth  be  only  4  the  abbot  or  the  nominee  of  the 
abbot.5  ” 

In  Paris,  through  the  action  of  Etienne  Marcel,  the  Provost 
of  the  Merchants,  the  democratic  element  got  the  upper  hand. 
Marcel,  then  aged  about  forty,  belonged,  however,  to  one  of  the 
richest  and  best-connected  families  in  the  town.  He  was  a 
woollen-draper,  connected  with  the  great  woollen-drapers  of 
Flanders.  Perhaps  the  figure  of  Jacques  van  Artevelde  haunted 
him.  The  popular  class  in  Paris  was  to  find  in  him  a  guide  with 
broad  views,  ideas  of  reform,  and  by  reason  of  his  intellectual 
power  at  least,  a  leader  worthy  of  guiding  them. 

The  provostship  of  the  merchants  was  a  magistracy  of  the 
burgesses.  All  commercial  jurisdiction  was  subject  to  it  :  it 
was  the  sole  bond  between  the  various  fiefs  whose  union  had 
formed  the  town  ;  it  had  the  policing  of  the  streets.  To  it  be¬ 
longed  the  duty  of  maintaining  the  fortifications  and  defence  of 
the  place.  And  through  this,  later,  its  prerogatives  increased. 

Let  us  recall  what  has  been  already  said.  The  towns  and 
the  places  in  which  the  democratic  elements  were  predominant 
inclined  towards  the  English  Crown  or,  at  least,  were  in  opposi¬ 
tion  to  the  government  of  the  Valois  supported  by  the  aristoc¬ 
racy  and  the  patriciate.  But  a  national  sentiment  was  already 
beginning  to  show  itself.  It  was  repugnant  to  the  people  of 
Paris  and  to  a  man  of  the  quality  of  Etienne  Marcel  to  seek 
support  in  people  who  were  as  strangers,  even  enemies,  in  France. 
Thus  Marcel  and  his  colleagues,  Robert  le  Coq,  Bishop  of  Laon, 
and  the  Vidame  of  Picquigny,  were  induced  to  support  the  cause 
of  Charles  the  Bad.  He  was  the  Count  of  Evreux  and  a  French 

461 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


prince.  Admitting  the  transmission  of  royal  rights  through 
women  he  was  the  heir  of  the  Capetians.  Charles  the  Bad 
was  held  captive  in  the  castle  of  Arleux-lès-Amiens.  At  the 
instigation  of  Marcel  and  his  friends,  a  band  of  men  of 
Amiens  seized  the  castle  of  Arleux  in  the  night  of  the  8th-9th 
November  1357.  Restored  to  liberty,  Charles  the  Bad  came 
to  Paris. 

Later,  when  it  is  no  longer  possible  to  support  the  cause 
of  the  King  of  Navarre,  the  Parisians  pronounce  in  favour  of 
the  Duke  of  Burgundy.  This  latter,  sprung  directly  from  the 
French  reigning  family,  will  appease  any  patriotic  scruple  they 
may  have.  Finally,  under  the  evils  of  invasion,  national  senti¬ 
ment  will  triumph  over  every  other  motive  in  the  irresistible 
movement  of  which  Jeanne  d’Arc  will  be  the  sublime  incarna¬ 
tion,  and  the  people  of  Paris  will  come  back  in  its  turn  to  the 
fieur-de-lis.  But  up  to  the  death  of  Jeanne  d’Arc  the  Parisians, 
and  how  many  other  good  Frenchmen  with  them,  will  follow, 
and  how  resolutely,  the  44  Burgundians.” 

In  Paris,  Charles  the  Bad  found  refuge  in  the  Abbey  of  St. 
Germain-des-Prés.  He  had  the  people  of  Paris  summoned 
under  the  walls  of  the  abbey,  in  the  famous  44  Clerics’  Field  ” 
(Pré  -aux-Clers),  and  standing  on  the  wall — supra  muros — on  the 
30th  November  1357,  he  44  preached  ”  to  the  crowd  44  in  a  loud 
and  clear  voice.”  He  described  the  iniquity  of  his  arrest  and  his 
sorrowful  imprisonment,  44  and  though  he  said  nothing  openly 
against  the  King,  nor  against  the  Duke  (of  Normandy,  later 
Charles  V),  at  the  same  time  he  said  quite  enough  things  dis¬ 
honourable  and  shameful  to  them  in  covert  speech,  and  such 
things  he  spoke  for  a  long  time  ”  ( Grandes  Chroniques).  The 
people  wept.  Finally,  under  popular  pressure,  seconded  by  the 
widows  of  Charles  the  Fair  and  Philip  of  Valois,  the  aunt  and 
sister  of  the  King  of  Navarre,  an  apparent  reconciliation  took 
place  between  the  latter  and  the  young  Charles  V  (3rd  December 
1357). 

Etienne  Marcel  seems  all  powerful  in  Paris  and  the  sur¬ 
rounding  district.  He  has  taken  seriously  in  hand  the  cares  of 
the  administration.  He  sees  to  the  cleanliness  of  the  streets,  and 
no  longer  allows  pigs  to  wander  freely  there.  However,  the 
States,  after  having  so  loudly  blamed  the  debasement  of  the 
462 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 

coinage,  believe  themselves  authorized  to  have  recourse  to  this 
also. 

The  aim  of  Etienne  Marcel  seems  to  have  been  to  give  France 
an  organization  similar  to  that  of  the  Flemish  :  the  administra¬ 
tion  of  the  country  by  urban  assemblies,  grouped  in  federation 
under  the  direction  of  Paris — which  would  play  the  part  held  by 
Ghent  in  Flanders — under  the  more  or  less  nominal  suzerainty 
of  the  King,  who  would  have  corresponded  to  the  Suzerain 
Count  in  Flanders. 

But  it  was  in  fact  the  local  liberties  of  the  French  which 
prevented  the  realization  of  these  plans.  M.  Coville  has  seen 
this  clearly.  In  France  the  provinces  appeared  as  so  many 
different  nations.  In  Flanders,  Ghent  could  conduct  its  policy, 
the  policy  imagined  by  Etienne  Marcel  for  Paris,  only  by 
means  of  a  veritable  dictatorship  imposed  by  force  on  the  other 
towns  of  the  country.  It  was  with  difficulty  that  Marcel  found 
in  some  towns,  Abbeville,  Amiens,  Laon,  Sens,  and  Rouen,  some 
good  folk  ready  to  assume  his  caps  of  red  and  blue.  Even  in 
these  few  districts,  the  movement  was  far  from  enlisting  a 
decided  majority.  Elsewhere  Marcel’s  voice  found  no  echo  ; 
it  never  even  reached  to  the  South. 

Added  to  this,  Marcel  found  in  Charles  V,  the  eldest  son  of 
John  the  Good,  an  adversary  worthy  of  him.  Charles,  in  his 
turn,  wanted  to  harangue  the  people  of  Paris.  He  had  them 
summoned  to  the  market-place.  “  And  when  the  Bishop  of 
Laon  and  the  Provost  of  the  Merchants  knew  of  this,  they 
thought  to  prevent  it,  and  said  to  my  lord  the  Duke  (Charles  V) 
that  he  would  be  putting  himself  in  great  danger  by  going  among 
so  many  of  the  people.  But  the  said  lord  Duke  did  not  believe 
them  ;  and  went  about  terce  (10  a.m.)  to  the  said  market  hall,  on 
horseback,  with  about  five  or  seven  companions.  And  he  said 
to  the  great  crowd  of  people  who  were  there,  that  it  was  his 
intention  to  live  and  die  with  them,  and  that  they  should  not 
give  credence  to  those  who  had  said  and  published  that  he  got 
soldiery  to  come  to  pillage  and  destroy  .  .  .  but  that  he  had 
brought  these  to  help  and  defend  and  protect  the  French  people, 
who  had  to  suffer  much,  for  their  enemies  were  very  widespread  ” 
( Grandes  Chroniques). 

Charles  V  had  a  success  equal  to  that  of  Charles  the  Bad. 

463 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


The  common  people  were  flattered  to  see  such  great  personages 
coming  to  speak  to  them  familiarly,  and  both  spoke  very  well. 

When  Marcel  saw  the  young  prince  winning  back  his 
authority  over  the  Parisians  he  resolved  to  hasten  a  decision  in 
attacking  those  whom  he  considered  his  chief  advisers,  the  most 
redoubtable  obstacles  to  his  plans,  Jean  de  Conflans,  Marshall  of 
Champagne,  and  Robert  of  Clermont,  Marshall  of  Normandy. 
In  the  morning  of  the  22nd  February  he  gathered  together  an 
armed  crowd,  about  3000  men,  drawn  from  the  class  of  crafts¬ 
men,  who  flung  themselves  with  furious  cries  on  the  dwelling  of 
the  King  (Palais  de  Justice)  and  massacred  the  two  officers  in 
the  very  apartment  of  Charles  V.  The  corpse  of  the  Marshall 
of  Champagne  rolled  at  the  feet  of  the  horrified  Dauphin. 

44  And  (the  Dauphin)  said  to  the  Provost  of  the  Merchants  : 

44  4  Provost,  are  these  my  enemies  ?  Must  I  beware  of 
them  ?  ’ 

44  4  Sire,  they  are  your  real  well-wishers,  for  they  have  only 
come  here  for  your  profit.’ 

44  And  then  the  Provost  gave  him  his  red  and  azure  cap, 
and  then  the  said  burgesses  dragged  the  Marshalls,  of  Clermont 
and  of  Champagne,  into  the  courtyard  of  the  Palace,  and  then 
departed.  And  then  the  governors  of  the  three  states  (States- 
General)  thought  they  would  enjoy  peaceably  the  government 
of  the  kingdom  of  France  ”  ( Chron .  des  quatre  'premiers  Valois). 

On  the  26th  February  (1358)  Charles  the  Bad,  recalled  by 
Robert  le  Coq  and  Etienne  Marcel,  entered  Paris  again.  On 
the  14th  May  the  Dauphin  Charles  informed  the  Parisians, 
that  after  having  borne,  since  the  capture  of  King  John,  the 
title  of  lieutenant  of  the  King,  he  would  henceforth  style  him¬ 
self  44  regent  of  the  kingdom  ” — a  decision  which  he  seems  to 
have  taken  at  the  instigation  of  Etienne  Marcel.  The  Provost 
hoped,  from  the  moment  that  the  authority  of  the  Dauphin 
should  be  entirely  substituted  for  that  of  the  King,  to  con¬ 
centrate  in  his  own  hands  the  government  of  the  kingdom, 
the  young  regent  being  at  his  mercy.  He  reckoned  without 
his  host.  Charles  V  was  twenty-one  years  old.  He  had  a 
frail  appearance,  but  a  strong  will,  and  he  was  not  the  man 
to  let  himself  be  the  tool  of  any  one.  The  States-General, 
which  deliberated  at  Compiègne,  pronounced  in  his  favour.. 
464 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


Having  entered  on  the  path  of  violence  Etienne  Marcel  becomes 
daily  more  and  more  a  revolutionary  figure.  To  free  himself 
from  his  brutal  authority  the  young  King  left  Paris.  He 
went  to  Meaux  and  took  up  his  residence  in  the  market  of  the 
town,  a  “  very  strong  place.”  Pie  had  wished  to  bring  the 
artillery  from  the  Louvre,  but  the  Provost  had  prevented  him. 

The  Parisians,  much  moved,  tried  to  get  their  Prince  back 
again.  They  charged  the  King  of  Navarre  with  the  negotia¬ 
tions.  The  interview  took  place  on  the  2nd  May  (1358)  between 
Mello  and  Clermont.  “  And  the  said  regent  (Charles  V)  said 
to  him  (the  King  of  Navarre)  that  he  loved  the  city  of  Paris, 
and  he  well  knew  that  there  were  good  people  within  it  ;  but 
there  were  some  there  who  had  committed  great  villanies 
and  offences,  such  as  killing  his  people  in  his  presence,  taking 
his  castle  of  the  Louvre  and  its  artillery,  and  several  other 
offences  they  had  committed  against  him.  And  so  he  had  no 
intention  of  entering  Paris  until  these  things  had  been  re¬ 
dressed  ”  (Grandes  Chroniques ). 

The  Regent  increased  still  further  the  fortifications  of  the 
market  of  Meaux,  already  so  considerable.  He  left  there  the 
women  of  the  royal  household  and  departed  for  Sens.  The 
Grandes  Chroniques ,  drawn  up,  if  not  by  Charles  V  himself,  at 
least  under  his  inspiration,  contain  in  this  connection  lines  on 
which  we  ought  to  reflect  : 

rPhe  burgesses  of  Sens,  says  the  Chronicler,  received  the 
Dauphin  with  honour,  as  they  ought  to  do,  as  “  their  rightful 
lord  after  the  King  of  France,  his  father  ”  ;  at  the  same  time, 
adds  the  Chronicler,  “  there  were  then  few  towns,  cities,  or 
other  places  in  the  langue  d'oïl  which  were  not  roused  against 
the  nobles  (badly  disposed  therefore  towards  the  Dauphin) 
in  favour  of  the  people  of  Paris,  who  hated  them  (the  nobles).” 

The  Regent  arrived  at  Sens  at  the  moment  that  the  revolt 
of  the  Jacquerie  was  finishing.  The  famous  rising  of  the 
peasants  had  lasted  hardly  a  month  (May  to  June  1358).  The 
Jacquerie  appears  to  have  spread  over  the  country,  round  Paris 
and  Beauvais,  Brie,  and  a  part  of  Picardy  and  Champagne. 

The  bands  of  armed  “  Jacques  ”  seized  the  castles  and 
seigniorial  dwellings,  which  they  plundered.  “  They  had  made 
it  a  custom  in  the  flat  (not  fortified)  towns  through  which  they 

2  G  465 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


passed,  that  the  people,  men  or  women,  should  put  tables  in 
the  streets,  and  there  the  4  Jacques  ’  ate,  and  then  passed  on, 
burning  the  houses  of  the  gentlemen.”  They  carried  flags 
bearing  the  fleur-de-lis. 

The  44  Jacques  ”  had  come  to  commit  the  worst  excesses. 
Etienne  Marcel,  at  first  their  ally,  was  horror-stricken  by  them. 
And  it  was  the  King  of  Navarre  who,  at  the  head  of  a  band  of 
armed  knights,  crushed  the  rising  in  blood.  The  44  Jacques  ” 
had  chosen  as  their  leader  a  certain  Guillaume  Cale  or  Carle. 
44  He  was,”  says  the  Chronicler  of  the  first  Valois,  44  a  man  of 
knowledge  and  oratorical  powers,  of  good  face  and  figure.” 
He  tried  to  discipline  the  rebels  and  avoid  excesses.  Charles 
the  Bad  took  him  by  treason,  in  an  ambush  into  which  he  led 
him  under  pretence  of  concluding  an  armistice.  Then  he  had 
him  killed  in  a  horrible  manner  by  crowning  him  with  a  tripod 
of  red-hot  iron.  The  reaction  of  the  nobles  against  the  peasants 
was  terrible.  They  could  not  forgive  these  rustics  for  having 
made  them  afraid.  If  we  may  believe  the  well-informed  author 
of  the  Grandes  Chroniques ,  in  the  first  three  weeks  of  June 
they  killed  more  than  20,000  of  them.  The  nobles  took 
advantage  to  gratify  their  rancour  against  the  Parisians,  who 
detested  them.  44  And  every  day  the  gentlemen  burned 
houses  belonging  to  the  inhabitants  of  Paris,  and  took  and 
carried  off  all  the  furnishings  which  they  found  belonging  to 
these  inhabitants  ;  and  no  man  travelling  through  the  land 
dared  say  he  was  from  Paris.” 

Marcel  had  supported  the  44  Jacques  ”  at  the  beginning  of 
their  rising  :  he  saw  his  popularity  impaired  by  their  excesses. 
He  then  throws  himself  into  the  arms  of  the  King  of  Navarre. 
Charles  the  Bad,  on  his  side,  although  he  was  the  principal 
instrument  of  the  repression  of  the  peasants,  is  to  be  impelled 
by  the  very  force  of  circumstances  more  and  more  towards  the 
democratic  elements.  On  the  15th  June  he  makes  his  entry 
into  Paris,  as  captain  of  the  town,  at  the  head  of  English  soldiery. 
The  Parisians,  says  Jean  de  Venette,  welcomed  him,  for  they 
thought  he  would  defend  them  against  the  nobles.  But 
immediately  the  gentlemen  who  were  attached  to  him,  and 
particularly  in  his  expedition  against  the  44  Jacques,”  abandoned 
him.  They  44  left  the  said  King  of  Navarre,  when  they  saw 
466 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


that  he  had  accepted  the  captaincy  of  the  men  of  Paris  ”  ( Grandes 
Chroniques). 

Circumstances  prevented  the  realization  of  Etienne  Marcel’s 
plans.  Insensibly  and  against  his  will  he  is  to  be  led  from  one 
thing  to  another,  into  measures  more  and  more  vexatious  for 
a  statesman  and  more  and  more  compromising.  He  has  shown 
favour  to  the  “  Jacques,”  made  an  alliance  with  Charles  the 
Bad,  and  here  he  is,  in  order  to  resist  the  Regent’s  men-at- 
arms,  taking  as  auxiliaries  the  bands  of  brigands  known  under 
the  name  of  the  “  Great  Companies.”  Finally,  he  turns  to 
the  English,  some  bands  of  whom  Charles  the  Bad  had  already 
introduced  into  Paris. 

Jean  de  Venette,  with  his  vigour  and  customary  precision, 
draws  a  picture  of  what  happened.  The  nobles,  established 
at  Corbeil,  were  preventing  corn  and  bread  coming  by  water 
to  Paris.  They  had  thrown  a  bridge  across  the  river  between 
Paris  and  Corbeil,  and  passing  from  one  bank  to  the  other  did 
great  damage  to  the  people  of  Paris.  The  Provost  of  the 
Merchants,  at  the  head  of  an  armed  troop,  went  to  destroy 
the  bridge.  The  Regent  (Charles  V)  was  living  sometimes  at 
Sens,  sometimes  at  Meaux.  Another  day  the  nobles,  under 
the  orders  of  the  Duke  of  Normandy  (Charles  V),  came  as  far 
as  the  bridge  of  Charenton  in  the  desire  to  fight  against  the 
King  of  Navarre  and  the  Parisians.  The  King  of  Navarre, 
the  Captain  of  the  Parisians,  went  to  meet  the  Duke  of  Nor¬ 
mandy,  but  instead  of  fighting  him,  he  made  long  speeches 
to  his  troops  and  then  went  back  into  the  town  ;  he  was  very 
fond  of  talking.  This  rendered  him  suspect  in  the  eyes  of  the 
people  of  Paris,  “  for  he  was  noble,”  says  the  Chronicler. 

The  relations  between  the  English  soldiers  whom  Marcel 
had  brought  into  the  town  and  the  Parisians  could  not  fail 
to  be  disagreeable.  The  news  spread  that  the  English  of 
St.  Denis  and  St.  Cloud  were  pillaging  the  country,  and  the 
Parisians  throwing  themselves  upon  the  “  Goddams.”  They 
killed  fifty  and  shut  up  a  great  many  more,  and  some  of  the 
most  important,  in  the  towers  of  the  Louvre.  At  which  the 
King  of  Navarre  and  Marcel  were  “  very  angry.” 

On  the  next  day,  the  King  of  Navarre  summoned  the 
Parisians  to  the  Place  de  Grève,  and,  from  the  windows  of  the 

467 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Town  Hall,  he  blamed  them  for  treating  the  English  so  badly. 
Had  they  not  come  44  to  serve  the  people  of  Paris  ”  ?  After 
which  he  said,  narrates  the  Chronicler,  44  fine  and  gentle  words.” 
But  the  Parisians  replied  with  cries  of, 44  Death  to  the  English  !  ” 
and  that  they  ought  all  to  be  killed.  They  even  forced  the 
King  of  Navarre  and  Etienne  Marcel  to  put  themselves  at  their 
head  and  march  against  the  English  at  St.  Cloud.  They  fell 
there  into  an  ambush  and  fought  confusedly  and  in  retreat, 
leaving  600  of  their  men  on  the  ground.  Charles  the  Bad  did 
not  dare  to  enter  Paris  again.  He  remained  at  St.  Denis, 
while  Marcel  at  his  return  was  44  severely  scolded  and  blamed  ” 
by  his  subjects.  Sixty-seven  Englishmen  remained  shut  up 
in  the  towers  of  the  Louvre,  where  the  Parisians  wanted  to  kill 
them.  On  the  27th  July  (1358),  at  the  head  of  an  armed  troop, 
Marcel  went  to  deliver  them,  and,  protecting  them  against  the 
fury  of  the  mob — 44  and  they  (the  men-at-arms)  had  their  bows 
at  the  stretch  ” — he  put  them  out  of  Paris  by  the  porte  St. 
Honoré.  They  went  to  join  their  compatriots  established  at 
St.  Denis.  One  can  see  how  feelings  went.  Marcel  is  fatally 
drawn  to  the  English  ;  but  the  contact  of  the  Parisians  with 
the  English  provokes  national  sentiment  against  which  the 
Provost  of  the  Merchants  will  see  his  projects  break  like  glass. 

The  ill-humour  of  the  Parisians  was  further  irritated  by  the 
lack  of  provisions,  for  the  English  and  the  Navarrese,  as  well  as 
the  followers  of  the  Dauphin,  stopped  them  on  the  way.  Feeling 
his  popularity  compromised  in  the  capital,  abandoned  by  the 
provinces  where  the  cause  of  the  Regent  was  coming  more  and 
more  into  favour,  Etienne  Marcel  was  driven  to  extreme 
measures.  He  resolved  to  let  the  King  of  Navarre  into  the 
capital,  although  he  knew  of  the  strict  alliance  concluded  shortly 
before  between  Charles  the  Bad  and  the  English.  In  the 
night  of  the  31st  July  1358,  Marcel  was  at  the  barrière  St. 
Antoine  with  some  of  his  party.  He  held  in  his  hands  the  great 
keys  of  the  formidable  gate,  when  he  was  surprised  by  the 
échevin,  Jean  Maillard,  who  had  rallied  to  the  side  of  the 
Dauphin.  Maillard  was  accompanied  by  the  knight  Pepin  des 
Essarts  and  several  resolute  men.  With  one  blow  of  an  axe  he 
split  the  skull  of  the  Provost  of  the  Merchants.  Maillard’s 
companions  threw  themselves  on  those  of  Marcel  and  killed 
468 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


the  majority  of  them  ;  then  they  dragged  their  corpses  to  the 
square  in  front  of  the  church  of  the  Val  des  Ecoliers.  The 
corpses  remained  there  several  days,  naked,  ignominiously 
exposed  to  the  gaze  of  the  passers-by.  The  Parisians  would 
not  allow  them  to  be  buried,  so  that  the  Dauphin,  “  on  his 
arrival,  could  see  with  his  own  eyes  that  he  was  avenged  on 
his  enemies.” 

The  peasants  furnish  touching  evidence  of  the  awakening 
of  national  sentiment  among  the  people.  The  people  of  the 
villages  seized  the  fortress  of  Longueil-Ste-Marie  (arrondisse¬ 
ment  of  Compiègne)  and  organized  there  the  resistance  to  the 
English  companies  which  were  plundering  the  country.  Under 
the  leadership  of  one  of  them,  Guillaume  PAloue  (Alouette, 
pretty  French  name  !),  they  slaughtered  the  English  who  fell 
into  their  hands.  They  would  not,  moreover,  admit  any 
gentleman  into  their  ranks.  They  remained  the  enemies  of 
the  Nobility,  at  the  same  time  wishing  to  free  the  land  from 
the  English.  L’Aloue  was  surprised  by  the  44  red  crosses  ”  and 
killed,  but  not  without  defending  himself  valiantly  in  a  combat 
in  which  he  and  his  peasants  killed  more  than  a  hundred  of 
the  enemy,  among  them  twenty-four  knights.  L’Aloue  left  a 
servant,  of  herculean  stature  and  strength,  the  great  Ferré. 
Armed  with  an  enormous  woodman’s  axe,  he  bore  down  the 
English  like  plaster  statues.  Jean  de  Venette  devoted  to  him 
a  page  of  marvellous  vividness  and  colour,  unhappily  written 
in  Latin.  Following  a  fight,  Ferré,  running  with  perspiration, 
had  drunk  some  icy-cold  water  in  great  mouthfuls.  He  went 
to  bed  shivering  with  fever.  His  wife  runs  to  warn  him  of  the 
approach  of  the  English.  The  colossus  rises,  leaning  with  his 
back  to  the  wall.  He  is  in  his  shirt.  The  attacking  party  were 
a  dozen  in  number,  armed  to  the  teeth.  With  his  good  axe 
he  beats  down  half  of  them.  The  rest  flee.  But  this  last  effort 
had  weakened  him.  He  took  to  bed  again,  never  to  rise 
from  it.  He  is  a  rude  and  admirable  type  of  the  French 
peasant. 

To  the  miseries  of  war  were  added  the  ravages  of  bands  of 
brigands,  the  scourge  of  the  Great  Companies.  44  The  sweet 
sound  of  the  bells,”  writes  Jean  de  Venette,  44  was  no  longer 
aroused  by  the  praises  of  God  but  by  enemy  invasions.  People, 

469 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


seek  shelter  !  A  weight  of  misery  lay  everywhere,  but  chiefly 
on  the  humble  rural  class,  whose  misfortunes  the  lords  increased 
by  extorting  their  goods.  Their  cattle  was  much  reduced,  but 
still  they  had  to  pay  to  the  lord  ten  sous  for  each  ox,  five  sous 
for  each  sheep.  “  In  this  year  1358,”  writes  Jean  de  Venette, 

“  numerous  unfortified  villages  transformed  their  churches 
into  fortresses,  surrounding  them  with  deep  ditches,  arming 
the  towers  with  machines  of  war  and  balistas,  and  carrying  up 
great  stones  to  resist  the  brigands  ;  and  the  precaution  proved 
useful  on  more  than  one  occasion.  Children  kept  guard  in 
watch-boxes  at  the  top  of  the  tower.  If  they  saw  the  enemy 
coming  afar  off  they  blew  horns  or  set  the  bells  in  motion. 
The  country  people  ran  to  take  shelter  in  the  church.  On  the 
banks  of  the  Loire  they  were  seen  taking  refuge  with  their 
families  and  beasts,  in  the  islands  of  the  river,  or  in  the  boats 
moored  along  its  course.”  On  the  other  hand,  the  peasants 
tried  in  many  places  to  destroy  the  fortresses.  We  have  seen 
that,  in  the  preceding  centuries,  these  castles  with  their  en¬ 
closures  had  served  the  workers  of  the  fields  as  shelter  and 
defence  ;  but  they  were  no  longer  anything  to  the  workers 
but  centres  of  offence  and  oppression.  When  they  could  not 
take  it  by  force,  the  peasants  joined  with  the  inhabitants  of 
the  neighbouring  town  to  buy  the  fortress  from  the  occupants, 
often  from  the  English,  and  afterwards  destroy  it  from  top  to 
bottom. 

The  young  Regent  (Charles  V)  re-entered  Paris  on  the 
2nd  August  1358.  The  aged  Charles  Toussac  and  Joceran  de 
Maxon,  the  chief  auxiliaries  of  Etienne  Marcel,  had  been 
dragged  from  the  Châtelet  into  the  square,  where  they  had  been 
beheaded,  and  their  bodies  then  thrown  into  the  river.  Execu¬ 
tions  followed  one  another  until  September.  On  the  12th  of 
that  month,  Thomas  de  Ladit,  a  canon  of  Paris  and  Chancellor 
of  the  King  of  Navarre,  imprisoned  in  the  Conciergerie  of  the 
Palace,  was  to  be  transferred  to  the  prisons  of  the  Bishop  of 
Paris.  Two  men  walking  one  behind  the  other  carried  him  on 
horseback  on  a  beam  supported  on  their  shoulders.  Ladit 
had  irons  on  his  legs.  Fearing  that  he  might  be  delivered  from 
his  punishment,  some  of  the  Parisian  associates  threw  them¬ 
selves  upon  him  and,  pulling  him  down,  killed  him,  “  and  he 
470 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


was  stripped  naked  and  remained  in  this  state  for  a  long  time 
on  the  ground,  in  the  middle  of  a  gutter  of  rain-wrater,  which  ran 
over  his  body,  and  towards  vespers  (3  p.m.)  he  was  dragged  to 
the  river  and  thrown  in  ”  ( Grandes  Chroniques). 

Whatever  might  be  the  intellectual  mediocrity  of  John  the 
Good,  the  condition  of  the  kingdom  was  such  that  only  the 
return  of  the  King  could  provide  a  remedy  for  the  ills  endured 
by  the  French.  xAnxious  to  put  an  end  to  these  calamities, 
wishful  also  of  regaining  his  liberty,  King  John  gave  his  consent 
to  the  Treaty  of  London  (24th  March  1359),  by  which  he  gave  up 
to  Edward  III  half  France  and  accorded  to  him  for  his  ransom 
four  million  golden  crowns,  a  fabulous  sum  in  those  days.  At 
the  news  of  such  an  agreement  there  went  up  in  France  a  cry 
of  stupefaction.  The  Dauphin  summoned  the  States,  which 
declared  such  a  treaty  impossible  to  execute.  The  only  answer 
was  to  make  “  good  war  against  the  English.”  The  Dauphin 
prepared  for  it  with  energy.  On  the  13th  August  1359  he  con¬ 
cluded  a  treaty  of  friendship  with  Charles  the  Bad,  who  decided, 
for  the  sake  of  great  advantages,  chiefly  in  money,  to  declare 
himself  a  “  good  Frenchman.”  New  forces  were  set  going,  of 
which  the  English  soon  felt  not  only  the  resistance  but  the  shock. 
A  thing  which  was  truly  admirable  was  that  in  the  then  state  of 
the  country  the  Dauphin  managed  to  equip  a  fleet,  and  the 
Parisians  contributed  two  thousand  gold  pennies  to  it  on  condi¬ 
tion  that  some  of  the  boats  should  be  commanded  by  them  and 
decorated  with  the  arms  of  their  city.  Their  contingents  were 
commanded  by  the  valiant  knight  Pepin  des  Essarts,  who  had 
seconded  Jean  Maillard  on  the  night  of  the  13th  July  1358. 
The  fleet  crossed  the  Straits  and  reached  Winchelsea,  where  the 
French  landed.  They  plundered  and  burned  this  important 
seaport,  and  returned  laden  with  booty.  This  expedition  pro¬ 
duced  an  enormous  effect.  The  King  of  England  was  so 
impressed  by  it  that  the  preliminaries  of  a  treaty  of  peace  were 
signed,  on  the  8th  May  1360,  at  Bretigny-les-Chartres.  Edward 
III  was  confirmed  in  the  possession  of  the  provinces  of  which  he 
was  suzerain  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  increased  by  Calais, 
the  counties  of  Ponthieu,  Guines,  Poitou,  and  Saintonge, 
Angoumois,  Limousin,  Périgord,  and  Agenais  ;  but  he  renounced 
his  claims  to  Boulogne,  and  also  Normandy,  Maine,  Anjou, 

471 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Touraine,  and  all  suzerainty  over  Brittany  and  Flanders.  King 
John’s  ransom,  fixed  at  three  million  golden  crowns,  though  it  was 
inferior  to  that  which  had  been  agreed  upon  by  the  Treaty  of 
London,  reached  none  the  less  a  formidable  figure.  By  the  same 
agreement  the  King  of  France  repudiated  all  alliance  with  the 
Scotch,  as  did  the  English  King  with  regard  to  the  Flemings. 

This  treaty,  which  has  been  considered  by  the  most  eminent 
modern  historians  as  of  real  advantage  to  France,  was  not  so 
regarded  by  contemporaries.  The  intelligent  author  of  the 
Chronique  des  quatre  premiers  Valois  judges  it  as  follows  : 

“Too  lightly  was  this  treaty  granted,  to  the  great  injury 
and  prejudice  of  the  French  realm.  For  the  King  of  England’s 
army  had  nothing  to  eat  and  no  provisions  in  the  open  country. 
For  all  had  retreated  into  fortresses,  castles,  and  good  towns 
(fortified  towns),  Avhich  were  not  easy  to  conquer.  Through 
which  the  said  King  of  England  and  his  army  would  have 
gone  away  and  departed  from  the  kingdom.” 

On  the  14th  June  1360,  at  a  fine  dinner  given  by  the  French 
King  in  the  Tower  of  London  to  his  colleague  of  England,  the 
two  princes  swore  fidelity  and  friendship  with  each  other. 
At  last,  on  the  28th  July,  after  a  captivity  of  four  years,  John 
landed  at  Calais.  He  remained  there  until  the  24th  October. 
Edward  III  had  joined  him  there.  The  treaty  was  sworn  on 
the  Gospels  by  the  two  Kings.  But  these  fine  vows,  set  off  by 
magnificent  feasting,  were  accompanied  by  reservations.  “  The 
said  King  of  England  gave  up  the  name  of  King  of  France,  and 
called  himself  King  of  England,  Lord  of  Ireland  and  Aquitaine  ; 
but  he  did  not  yet  give  up  the  said  kingdom  of  France,  nor  did 
the  King  of  France  renounce  the  jurisdictions  and  sovereignties 
of  the  lands  which  he  leased  to  the  said  King  of  England,  nor  to 
the  homage  for  them.”  It  was,  in  fact,  agreed  that  the  renuncia¬ 
tions  of  these  rights  which  were  claimed  and  these  jurisdictions 
should  not  become  active  until  after  an  exchange  of  documents 
relating  to  them  which  should  take  place  a  year  later  at  Bruges, 
on  the  30th  November  1361.  The  “  Peace  of  Bretigny  ”  was 
really  only  a  truce,  accompanied  by  the  setting  at  liberty  of  King 
John  on  consideration  of  a  ransom. 

Petrarch  gives  a  pitiful  idea  of  the  state  of  the  kingdom  in 
relating  that,  to  go  safely  from  Calais  to  Paris,  King  John 
472 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


found  himself  obliged  to  obtain  a  safe  conduct  from  the  bandits 
commanding  the  Companies.  “  A  lamentable  thing,”  writes 
the  poet,  “  and  truly  shameful  !  The  King  himself,  on  his 
return  from  captivity,  found  obstacles  to  his  re-entry  into  the 
capital.  He  was  forced  to  treat  with  the  brigands.  Posterity 
will  refuse  to  believe  it.” 

Posterity  has  had  to  form  the  habit  of  believing  in  facts 
much  more  incredible  still. 

King  John  at  length  crossed  the  boundary  of  Paris  on  the 
13th  December  1360. 

The  years  which  followed  the  Peace  of  Bretigny  did  not,  how¬ 
ever,  bring  to  the  unhappy  people  the  amelioration  for  which 
they  had  hoped.  Two  scourges  tried  them  cruelly  :  the  plague, 
which  made  a  new  and  terrible  appearance  in  1362,  and,  more 
redoubtable  still,  brigandage.  This  latter  calamity  grew  worse. 
Some  brigands  had  at  least  found  employment,  or  been  killed, 
in  war.  But  now  come  some  years  of  peace.  “The  roads  were 
no  safer  than  in  the  days  when  the  English  infested  them,” 
says  the  Continuator  of  Nangis.  These  companies  of  brigands 
were,  moreover,  admirably  organized.  Under  the  guidance  of  a 
proved  leader,  each  of  them  had  at  their  disposal  a  complete 
service,  of  smiths  and  farriers,  saddlers,  tanners,  butchers, 
valets  and  serving-men,  women  for  pleasure  and  for  good  usage, 
dressmakers,  and  laundresses  ;  surgeons  for  wounds  and  doctors 
for  health.  Arnaud  de  Cervole,  called  the  Arch-priest,  is  the 
King’s  lieutenant  in  Nivernais  ;  he  marries  the  richest  heiress 
in  the  land  and  of  the  highest  nobility,  the  lady  of  Château  vilain. 
He  writes  to  the  people  of  Nimes  dating  it  “  the  sacred  Friday 
after  the  holy  mystery.”  He  was  a  frightful  bandit,  and  ended 
in  being  vulgarly  assassinated  by  one  of  his  men  in  a  quarrel. 
These  leaders  of  bands  were  often  of  the  humblest  birth. 
Robert  Knolles  had  been  in  his  youth  a  working  weaver  ; 
Croquart  and  the  Petit  Meschin  had  been  serving-men. 

Their  luxuriousness  witnessed  to  their  character  as  parvenus  : 
the  new  rich  of  the  Hundred  Years  War.  They  clothed  them¬ 
selves  in  a  sumptuous  and  showy  manner,  “  wearing  caps  with 
ostrich  feathers  ”  ;  moreover,  they  were  careful  to  exclude  these, 
by  the  same  title  as  edged  weapons,  from  the  safe  conducts 
which  they  granted  for  payment  to  the  baggage  of  travellers  and 

473 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


merchants.  The  unfortunate  people  who  cannot  live  within 
the  walls  of  a  fortified  town  or  a  castle  with  a  keep  are  “  tracked 
down  like  wild  beasts.”  With  what  anxiety  they  travel  in  the 
open  country.  “  At  the  least  sign  they  run  madly  to  hide  with 
wife  and  children  in  the  spaces  of  the  rocks,  in  the  depths  of 
caves,  among  the  reeds  in  the  marshes  or  the  thickets  in  the 
woods.” 

These  bands  were  gathered  in  great  numbers  in  the  country 
round  Lyons,  which  they  devastated,  and  whence  they  threatened 
the  Papacy  in  Avignon.  An  expedition  was  organized  against 
them  under  the  orders  of  the  Count  of  Tancarville.  The 
leaders  of  the  Companies,  English  and  French,  united  for  plunder; 
John  Hawkwood,  Briquet,  John  Cresway,  commanded  a  mass 
of  mere  adventurers  of  every  shape  and  colour,  but  brave  in 
battle.  The  French  chivalry  suffered  another  Creçy  or  Poitiers  ; 
in  the  outskirts  of  Brignais  (Lyonnais)  it  was  defeated,  and  its 
leaders  killed  or  captured  :  the  Count  of  Tancarville,  the  Count 
of  Joigny,  the  Count  of  Sarrebrück,  the  Count  of  Furez,  Jacques 
de  Bourbon,  and  his  son,  Pierre  de  Bourbon  (6th  April  1362). 
For  the  rest,  people  hanged  these  brigands  from  the  highest  trees 
of  the  forest  when  they  happened  to  be  surprised  in  small 
companies. 

Moreover,  if  we  believe  the  Continuator  of  Nangis,  the  misery 
of  the  times  did  not  bring  the  nobles  to  a  sense  of  their  duties  : 
“  In  1363  were  seen  only  the  crushing  and  oppression  of  the 
people  .  .  .  not  only  by  the  brigands  but  by  the  heavy  imposi¬ 
tions  and  taxes.  What  murders  in  the  villages  and  woods  ! 
The  people  found  no  defenders.  Quite  the  opposite,  the 
aristocracy  seemed  pleased  at  the  prevalence  of  these  evils, 
to  which  they  should  have  applied  a  remedy  with  diligent 
hands.” 

In  Brittany  the  war  between  the  two  Houses,  of  Montfort 
and  Blois,  went  on  amid  the  general  lassitude.  The  death  of 
Charles  of  Blois,  killed  at  the  battle  of  Auray  (1364),  by  re¬ 
moving  one  of  the  claimants,  produces  a  feeling  of  relief.  By 
the  Treaty  of  Guérande  (1365)  the  French  King  is  to  recognize 
the  rights  of  the  House  of  Montfort.  The  tenacious  and  heroic 
widow  of  Charles  of  Blois  will  be  provided  with  the  County  of 
Penthièvrc.  On  the  13th  December  1366,  Jean  de  Montfort 
474 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 

will  do  homage  for  the  Duchy  of  Brittany  to  Charles  V,  now 
King. 

We  touch  here  on  an  event  which  did  not  at  the  moment 
appear  of  extraordinary  importance,  but  which  was  to  lead  to 
the  gravest  consequences.  In  September  1363,  King  John 
gave  the  crown  of  Burgundy  to  his  fourth  son,  Philip,  called 
the  Bold  (le  Hardi).  Philip  was  twenty-two  years  old.  John 
remembered  the  courage  of  the  child  at  his  side  in  the  battle 
of  Poitiers. 

The  King  had  inherited  the  Duchy  of  Burgundy  in  1360 
at  the  death  of  Philippe  de  Rouvres,  the  last  prince  of  the  first 
Capetian  dynasty.  With  Philip  the  Bold  began  the  second 
dynasty,  whose  deeds  and  history  we  shall  see.  According 
to  the  words  of  the  Continuator  of  Nangis  (1360)  they  might 
have  been  foreseen. 

The  English  were  advancing  towards  Burgundy  after  their 
check  before  Reims  and  Châlons.  “At  this  news,”  says 
Jean  de  Venette,  “  the  Burgundians  concluded  with  them  the 
following  agreement.  They  would  give  the  English  much 
money,  they  would  permit  them  to  pass  through  their  provinces, 
they  would  furnish  them  with  provisions  so  long  as  they  should 
be  in  France,  provided  that  the  English  did  not  inflict  any  loss 
upon  them.”  “  This  at  least  is  what  is  being  said  in  Paris 
at  the  moment  I  am  writing  these  lines,”  says  the  Chronicler  ; 
“  but  I  cannot  believe  it.  I  cannot  believe  that  this  people 
could  have  done  this  in  favour  of  the  country’s  enemies  and 
to  the  prejudice  of  the  realm.  If  it  were  so,  and  I  do  not  think 
it  is,  it  would  be  to  their  confusion  and  their  eternal  shame.” 

The  facts  were,  unhappily,  true.  The  treaty  still  exists, 
dated  the  10th  March  1360. 

One  can  then  imagine  what  a  province  would  become  which 
was  animated  by  such  a  sentiment  of  individualism  under  the 
direction  of  ambitious  princes. 

However,  the  clauses  of  the  Treaty  of  Bretigny  were  badly 
carried  out  or  not  carried  out  at  all.  The  populations  yielded 
to  the  English  wished  to  remain  French.  The  determined 
resistance  of  the  sea  captain,  Ringois  d’Abbeville,  caused  him 
to  be  shut  up  in  Dover  Castle,  and  as  nothing — threats,  promises, 
nor  injuries — could  induce  him  to  acknowledge  himself  as  an 

475 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Englishman,  he  was  “  thrown  from  the  cliffs  of  the  Castle  of 
Dover  into  the  sea.” 

The  money  for  the  enormous  ransom  of  King  John  was  only 
raised  with  great  difficulty.  Money  became  so  scarce  that 
pieces  of  leather,  “  with  a  little  silver  nail,”  were  put  into 
circulation.  Comines  speaks  of  them  in  his  memoirs.  He  saw 
in  his  time  some  of  these  leather  tokens. 

In  our  own  days,  by  means  of  paper  and  aluminium  and 
our  yellow-boys  ( jaunets )  we  have  recourse  to  similar  means  of 
exchange. 

John  had  left  as  a  hostage  in  England,  his  son,  the  Duke 
of  Anjou,  who  was  to  live  there  until  all  the  clauses  of  the  Treaty 
of  Peace  were  executed.  But  the  young  prince  grew  weary 
and  ran  away.  He  rigged  up  a  ship  and  returned  to  France. 
“  And  so  that  it  could  not  be  said  that  the  agreement  was 
broken  by  him,  King  John  of  France  crossed  the  sea  to  England 
and  went  in  person  to  put  himself  in  prison  again  for  his  son.” 

The  departure  took  place  on  the  6th  January  1364.  John 
died  in  London  in  the  following  April. 

The  poet  Cuvelier  consecrated  to  him  this  funeral  oration  : 


He  crossed  straight  to  London,  the  good  King  of  France, 
John,  the  son  of  Philip  of  Valois  ; 

To  England  he  went  back  this  time 
To  keep  faith  ;  for  in  him  was  honour, 

Charity  and  courage,  strength,  power,  and  justice  ; 

An  honourable  man  he  was  and  loyal,  courteous  to  all. 
The  English  were  very  angry  at  his  death. 


The  poet  well  defines  the  qualities  of  King  John.  He  had 
the  virtues  of  chivalry.  And  it  was  with  reason  that  “  the 
English  were  very  angry  at  his  death.”  John  the  Good  had 
none  of  the  qualities  necessary  to  a  French  King  in  the  circum¬ 
stances  in  which  he  was  placed  ;  his  son  Charles  V  will  direct 
public  affairs  in  quite  another  manner. 

Born  in  the  Castle  of  Vincennes  on  the  21st  January  1337, 
Charles  V  ascended  the  throne  at  the  age  of  twenty-seven 

years.  He  was  a  young  man,  gentle  and  serious, 
simple  and  neat  in  dress,  thoughtful  and  not 
robust.  He  was  of  medium  height.  He  had 
slender  limbs,  but  broad,  straight  shoulders.  He  suffered 
476 


Charles 
the  Wise. 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


from  intermittent  fevers,  headaches,  and  digestive  disturbances. 
His  right  hand,  slow  in  movement,  could  not  support  a  heavy 
weight.  He  passed  his  life  between  apothecaries  and  doctors. 
We  are  far  indeed  from  those  brilliant  knights,  Philip  of  Valois 
and  John  the  Good.  Charles  loved  good  books,  reflection, 
study.  He  sought  the  company  of  those  who  44  spoke  fine 
Latin  and  were  argumentative.”  He  himself  spoke  with  a 
resonant  voice,  easily  and  precisely.  His  eloquence  was  very 
simple  but  charming,  and  was  displayed  in  the  purest  style. 
He  meditated  at  length  seated  in  his  44  desk  ”  or  in  his  walks 
in  the  shades  of  Vincennes.  He  would  not  allow  44  a  man  of 
his  Court,  however  noble  and  powerful,  to  wear  too  short 
clothes,  or  shoes  with  too  outrageous  a  turn  upwards,  nor 
women  to  be  sewn  up  too  tightly  in  their  clothes,  or  to  wear 
too  large  collars  ”  (Christine  de  Pisan). 

It  is  said  that  his  grandfather  at  Creçy,  seeing  the  English 
afar  off,  felt  his  blood  boil.  From  the  windows  of  his  Castle 
of  Vincennes,  Charles  saw  rising  on  the  horizon  the  smoke  of 
the  villages  to  which  the  English  were  setting  fire. 

44  It  is  not  with  this  smoke  that  they  will  drive  me  from  the 
kingdom.” 

Du  Guesclin  offered  to  the  young  King  as  a  gift  for  a  happy 
accession  the  victory  of  Cocherel  (13th  May  1364).  Neither 
of  the  two  parties,  French  or  English,  desiring  that  the  Treaty 
of  Bretigny  should  be  put  into  force,  war  was  resumed.  Du 
Guesclin  triumphed  over  the  best  English  leader,  the  famous 
Captai  de  Buch.  The  consequences  were  felt  immediately  : 
Charles  the  Bad,  whose  fidelity  remained  in  the  balance,  ex¬ 
changed  his  Norman  domains,  which  were  too  near  the  English, 
for  the  distant  lordship  of  Montpelier. 

The  struggle  between  Pedro  the  Cruel  and  his  natural 
brother,  Henry  of  Trastamara,  for  the  possession  of  the  crown 
of  Castile  furnishes  a  propitious  occasion  for  getting  rid,  at 
least  in  part,  of  the  Great  Companies.  The  Spaniards  re¬ 
proached  Pedro  the  Cruel  for  his  alliance  with  the  Saracen 
princes  and  for  having  married  a  Jewess.  As  he  was  supported 
by  the  English,  the  French  pronounced  in  favour  of  his  rival. 
Du  Guesclin  led  the  undisciplined  bands  across  the  Pyrenees. 
The  fortune  of  war  there  was  varied.  As  in  the  French  wars, 

477 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Du  Guesclin  distinguished  himself  in  the  taking  of  fortresses. 
He  led  his  men  to  the  assault  of  steep  walls  : 

They  have  won  our  walls,  so  firm  ; 

Like  monkey  or  cat  hideously  creeping, 

They  have  crept  upwards.  .  .  . 

But  at  the  battle  of  Navarette  (3rd  April  1367)  the  French 
men-at-arms  succumbed  once  again  before  the  English  archers. 
Du  Guesclin  was  made  prisoner.  His  proud  answer  to  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  who  was  surprised  at  the  large  sum  at  which 
Du  Guesclin  himself  fixed  his  ransom,  has  remained  famous  : 

There  is  not  a  woman  in  France  who  can  spin  a  thread, 

Who  would  not  rather  win  my  ransom  by  spinning 
Than  not  free  me  from  your  bonds.  .  .  . 

This  is  all  very  well  ;  but  it  is  chiefly  to  the  honour  of  the 
women  of  France,  and  the  valiant  knight,  since  it  fell  to  him  to 
fix  his  own  ransom,  might  have  spared  them  an  effort  which 
could  only  satisfy  his  own  vanity.  After  this,  fortune  returned 
to  the  French  candidate.  At  the  battle  of  Monti  el  (14th  March 
1369)  the  troops  of  Pedro  the  Cruel  were  crushed  by  Du 
Guesclin.  The  tactics,  already  quite  modern,  of  the  Breton 
leader,  were  there  shown.  Instead  of  first  throwing  his  army 
on  the  enemy,  after  the  traditional  manner  of  chivalry,  he 
takes  the  precaution  of  giving  advantage  to  the  attack  by 
what  our  strategists  now  call  44  a  preparation  of  artillery.” 

At  the  first  meeting,  there  was  discharge  of  arrows  and  missiles, 

After  this  the  battle  began, 

And  they  fought  hand  to  hand  during  its  course. 

Pedro  the  Cruel  was  taken  prisoner.  A  quarrel  having 
broken  out  between  him  and  his  brother  Henry,  the  latter 
killed  him  with  a  blow  of  a  dagger.  Henry,  King  of  Castile, 
gave  to  Du  Guesclin  his  country  of  Trastamara  raised  to  a 
Duchy.  Du  Guesclin  returned  to  Paris,  where  he  met  with  a 
triumphal  reception  (1370).  His  biographer  shows  him  enter¬ 
ing  the  capital,  with  a  modest  equipage,  44  in  a  grey  coat  and 
very  simply  dressed.”  The  Archpriest  had  been  commissioned, 
for  his  part,  to  lead  other  44  companies  ”  across  Germany  and 
Hungary,  up  to  the  confines  of  the  Greek  Empire,  to  attack  the 
Turks  there.  For  a  time,  at  least,  the  scourge  of  brigandage 
478 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


by  “  companies  ”  seems  to  have  been  appeased  in  France. 
Jean  de  Venette  describes  the  happy  decay  of  the  brigand 
hordes  : 

“  Bandits  and  robbers  lost  their  audacity.  Even  those 
who  occupied  fortified  places,  abandoned  them,  either  from 
fear,  or  after  having  sold  them  to  the  neighbouring  towns  or 
to  their  lawful  owners.  Along  the  route  of  their  retreat,  it 
is  true,  they  still  robbed  ;  but  the  product  of  their  thefts 
melted  in  their  hands  like  snow  in  the  sun.  They  sold  their 
horses  in  the  towns.  They  were  seen  in  a  wretched  condition, 
justifying  the  proverb  :  Goods  evilly  come  by  bring  no  profit 
(bien  mal  acquis  rtest  pas  profit).  And  they  died  in  4  misery.’ 
Glory  to  God.  Amen.” 

The  hostility  between  the  two  classes — between  those  whom 
contemporaries  call  the  44  great  ”  (gros)  and  those  whom  they 
call  the  44  small  ”  (menus) — remained.  It  broke  out  on  the  least 
occasion.  At  Tournai  the  people  were  unwilling  to  pay  the 
salt  tax  (gabelle)  or  any  of  the  new  impositions.  If  the 
Patricians  had  consented  to  these  it  was  because  they  made  a 
profit  in  the  collection  of  the  taxes.  The  44  commonalty  ”  had 
recourse  to  arms,  sounding  the  alarm-bell  in  the  watch-tower, 
calling  the  agricultural  workers  to  the  rescue.  The  Patricians, 
terror-stricken,  fled  from  the  town.  The  two  parties  more¬ 
over,  both  implored  the  intervention  of  the  King  of  France. 
Charles  V  sent  as  a  delegate  Edouard  de  Renty,  a  Picard  knight 
renowned  for  his  wisdom,  who  succeeded  in  putting  an  end 
to  the  quarrel. 

We  have  seen  that,  in  spite  of  the  Treaty  of  Bretigny,  war 
was  not  over  between  the  French  and  the  English.  It  was  to 
be  resumed  officially  in  1369  à  propos  of  the  appeals  of  Aqui¬ 
taine.  A  tax  of  five  sous  per  hearth  for  five  years  to  the  Prince  of 
Wales  had  been  agreed  to  by  the  States  of  Guienne,  assembled 
at  Angoulême,  on  the  18th  January  1368.  Count  Jean 
d’Armagnac,  who  had  been  put,  as  we  have  seen,  at  the  head 
of  the  nobility  of  Aquitaine,  refused  to  allow  it  to  be  collected 
on  his  lands,  declaring  that  he  had  44  a  daughter  to  marry,” 
and  as  they  were  trying  to  force  him  to  pay,  he  appealed  to  the 
Court  of  France  (2nd  March  1368).  The  Sire  d’Albret  joined 
him  in  his  appeal  on  the  8th  September  1368,  and  the  brother 

479 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


of  the  Count  of  Périgord  on  the  13th  April  1369.  And  this 
appeal  resounded  not  only  in  the  French  Court  but  throughout 
Aquitaine.  Towns  and  castles  emulated  one  another  in 
uniting  their  cause  with  that  of  Jean  d’ Armagnac  ;  they 
opened  their  gates  eagerly  to  the  representatives  of  Charles  V. 
Towards  the  middle  of  1369  there  were  in  Aquitaine  nearly  a 
thousand  appellants. 

Najac,  in  Rouergue,  had  broken  with  the  government  of  the 
Black  Prince  on  the  5th  January  (1369)  ;  on  the  17th  January 
Jean  d’Armagnac  defeated  a  party  of  English  at  Puylagarde, 
in  Quercy.  Charles  V  formally  declared  war  against  England 
in  April.  He  added,  in  the  following  month  :  “  Item ,  that  the 
said  prince  put  in  prison  M.  Bernard  Polot  and  Monseigneur 
Jehan  de  Chaponval,  deputed  by  the  King  of  France  to  present 
to  the  said  Prince  the  letters  of  the  King  of  France,  by  which 
the  said  prince  was  appointed  a  day  in  a  case  of  appeal  before 
the  King  or  his  Court  of  Parlement  in  Paris,  at  the  instance 
of  the  said  Count  of  Armagnac,  and  kept  them  prisoners  a  very 
long  time  and  caused  them  to  die,  in  great  contempt  of  the 
King  and  of  his  Sovereignty.” 

The  movement  which  had  taken  form  in  the  South,  had  its 
echo  in  those  of  the  Northern  provinces  which  had  passed 
under  the  rule  of  the  English  ;  Abbeville  in  Ponthieu,  Rue  in 
the  Somme,  and  a  number  of  fortresses  and  districts  called 
themselves  the  men  of  the  French  King.  The  English  said  of 
them,  not  without  spite  : 

Truly  these  villeins  have  become  French  again  : 

If  you  had  cut  them  open  like  a  larded  pig 

You  would  have  found  in  their  hearts  the  fleur-de-lis. 

“  I  will  go  at  his  summons,”  the  Black  Prince  had  said,  in 
speaking  of  the  citation  to  the  Parlement  of  Charles  V.,  “  but 
helmet  on  head  and  followed  by  60,000  men.” 

Charles  V  had  made  his  preparations  to  receive  him.  He 
had  put  good  supplies  into  the  fortresses  of  the  kingdom,  and 
had  those  destroyed  which  he  did  not  think  he  could  defend 
victoriously  ;  finally,  he  possessed  in  Bertrand  du  Guesclin  the 
greatest  leader  of  his  day. 

Du  Guesclin  inaugurated  a  new  method  of  warfare,  with 
surprises  and  ambushes.  The  country  is  left  empty  before 
480 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


the  invader  ;  the  people  withdraw  into  the  fortresses.  The 
English  in  the  midst  of  campaign  had  no  means  of  replenish¬ 
ing  their  food  supplies.  The  English  army  will  be  seen,  with¬ 
out  fighting,  dwindling  in  a  few  months  to  half  its  numbers. 
Charles  V  even  prepares  to  lead  a  new  expedition  into  England. 
He  goes  as  far  as  Honfleur  to  see  the  departure  of  the  fleet 
which  he  had  rapidly  equipped.  It  was  put  under  the  command 
of  Philip  the  Bold.  The  French  fleet  reached  the  English 
coast,  where  it  burned  Portsmouth.  But  the  expedition  was 
not  supported  by  the  vessels  of  the  King  of  Castile,  on  which 
they  had  counted  and  which  could  not  be  got  ready  in 
time. 

After  the  Winchelsea  expedition  and  the  Portsmouth  cruise, 
an  attack  of  Charles  V’s  fleet  on  the  English  port  of  Rye  will 
bring  honour  to  the  French  marine.  The  author  of  the  Debate 
of  the  Her  aids -at- Arms  says  that  King  Edward  was  so  upset  by 
it  that  he  fixed  his  residence  at  Northampton  “  because  they 
say  it  is  the  town  which  is  at  the  centre  of  England.” 

The  English  had  not  at  that  time  the  command  of  the  sea 
so  completely  as  one  tends  to  think.  The  herald-at-arms  of 
France  says  to  him  of  England  :  “  The  said  movement  (of  the 
French  marine)  was  partly  the  cause  of  your  losing  Normandy, 
for  your  King  Edward  could  not  find  men  to  cross  the  sea,  and 
all  were  very  busy.” 

The  herald-at-arms  points  out  that,  in  the  course  of  this 
agelong  struggle,  the  French  vessels  constantly  had  the  ad¬ 
vantage  in  single  combats  :  “A  French  vessel  on  the  sea 
on  an  equal  footing  always  defeats  an  English  ship.”  The 
author  attributes  this  to  the  advantage  on  the  sea  of  the  cross¬ 
bow  in  which  the  French  excelled,  over  the  long  bow  of  which 
the  English  were  masters.  The  swaying  of  the  ship  is  fatal  to 
the  archer  and  prevents  his  taking  aim,  while  the  crossbowman, 
whatever  the  movement  of  the  ship,  carries  the  force  of  his 
arrow. 

It  was  in  the  larger  conflicts,  of  fleet  against  fleet,  that  the 
English,  by  their  skill  in  manoeuvre,  resumed  the  advantage. 

The  strength  of  Du  Guesclin  was  further  increased  by  his 
patriotic  reconciliation  with  Olivier  de  Clisson,  who  will  succeed 
him  as  Constable.  Brought  up  in  the  English  methods  of 

2  H  481 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


warfare,  Clisson  knew  its  tricks  and  windings,  and  was  to  have 
them  used  against  them.  Moreover,  French  artillery  was 
making  sensible  progress.  From  the  beginning  of  the  reign 
of  Charles  V,  Girard  de  Figeac  and  Bernard  de  Montfaucon, 
master  armourers,  were  manufacturing  cannons,  throwing  bullets 
of  stone  weighing  a  hundred  pounds.  The  years  1371-72  were 
marked  by  some  notable  feats  of  arms,  mingled  with  the  efforts 
of  the  Pope  to  re-establish  peace.  The  Sovereign  Pontiff  was 
ever  thinking  of  the  Holy  Land  of  Jerusalem.  His  legates 
intervened,  and  Charles  V  consented  to  “  submit  himself  in  all 
things  to  the  ordinance  of  the  Floly  Father  ”  ;  but  the  King 
of  England  was  “  wholly  recalcitrant.”  Charles  V  then  said 
that  he  would  submit  to  the  judgment  of  the  Emperor.  To  this 
King  Edward  was  still  unwilling  to  agree.  Then  the  King  of 
France  said  that  “  he  would  put  it  to  the  ordinance  of  four 
Christian  kings.”  There  was  a  third  refusal  on  the  part  of 
the  English  King.  “  Item ,  the  said  legates  said  to  the  King  of 
England  that  he  would  submit  to  the  judgment  of  forty  persons, 
knights,  and  burgesses  taken  from  the  realm  of  England,  and 
as  many  similarly  taken  from  the  kingdom  of  France,  whatever 
these  eighty  might  say.  The  King  of  England  refused  all  this. 
And  so  the  said  legates  took  their  departure.” 

The  Captai  de  Buch,  lieutenant  of  the  English  King  in 
Poitou  and  Saintonge,  was  defeated  and  taken  prisoner  before 
Soubise  (Charente-Inférieure)  on  the  23rd  August  1372  :  “  And 
so  the  English  remain  very  weak  in  the  country.”  La  Rochelle, 
Angoulême,  Saintes,  St.  Jean  d’Angély,  open  their  gates  to  the 
French.  Poitiers  had  capitulated  on  the  3rd  August  1372.  Du 
Guesclin  had  presented  himself  at  the  foot  of  the  walls,  holding 
in  his  hand  a  branch  of  flowers  : 

A  branch  in  his  hand  of  flowers  quite  full, 

Before  the  gate  came  Bertrand  the  Knight, 

A  branch  in  his  hand  with  the  leaves  upon  it. 

His  page  with  him  but  few  people. 

He  gave  his  page  his  helmet  to  hold. 

“  Lords,”  said  Bertrand,  “  whom  here  I  see, 

May  it  please  you  to  hear  my  words, 

Without  shooting  or  aiming  or  hurling  stones. 

I  come  for  the  King  who  has  France  in  his  keeping, 

As  his  Constable.  .  , 


482 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


The  poet  puts  some  magnificent  words  into  the  mouth  of 
the  Constable  : 

“  Hear,”  says  Bertrand,  “  you  cannot  hold  out  ; 

For  just  as  one  sees  the  sun  shining  bright 
Passing  through  glass  all  bright  and  sparkling, 

So  shall  you  see  the  French  pass  through  your  walls.” 

The  Poitevins  were  no  doubt  convinced,  and  lowered  their 
drawbridges.  At  the  taking  of  St.  Sever,  Du  Guesclin  held 
the  garrison  to  ransom,  but  had  those  Frenchmen  who  had 
assisted  the  enemies  of  the  kingdom  hanged  by  their  valets 
and  serving-men.  At  the  end  of  March  1373,  Poitou  was 
entirely  reconquered.  In  1374  there  remained  to  the  English 
in  France  only  a  few  ports  :  Calais,  Cherbourg,  Brest,  Bordeaux, 
and  Bayonne.  “  And  so  the  King  of  France  had  such  power 
that  his  enemies  were  everywhere  most  feeble.  And  in  truth 
not  within  the  memory  of  man  had  a  King  been  seen  who  had 
accomplished  so  much.” 

In  1375  a  truce  was  concluded  on  the  intervention  of 
Gregory  XI.  The  celebrated  Black  Prince,  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  died  on  the  8th  June  1376.  A  Frenchman,  the  Chronicler 
of  the  first  four  Valois,  renders  him  this  homage  :  “  This  prince 
was  one  of  the  best  knights  in  the  world.  In  his  time  he  was 
renowned  above  all.”  Although  he  was  his  enemy,  Charles  V 
had  his  memory  celebrated  in  a  solemn  service.  In  September 
the  cunning  Gascon  leader,  the  Captai  de  Buch,  who  had  served 
the  cause  of  the  English  with  so  much  skill  and  valour,  died 
in  prison  at  the  Louvre,  where  he  had  been  maintained  in 
princely  captivity.  Finally,  in  1377  the  great  English  monarch, 
Edward  III,  whose  strong  and  active  will  had  supported  the 
war  from  its  beginnings,  died  in  his  turn.  A  child  of  ten 
succeeded  him  with  the  name  of  Richard  II.  Public  affairs, 
already  so  intricate,  were  to  be  further  complicated  by  the 
Great  Schism.  Gregory  XI,  the  seventh  Avignon  Pope,  died 
in  1377.  At  Rome,  a  conclave,  reduced  to  sixteen  cardinals, 
elected  an  Italian,  who  assumed  the  tiara  under  the  name  of 
Urban  VI  ;  but  the  next  year,  on  the  2nd  August  1378,  the 
majority  of  the  cardinals  who  had  taken  part  in  this  election 
declared  that  it  had  been  made  under  the  violent  compulsion 
of  the  people  of  Rome.  A  new  conclave  met  at  Fondi,  in  the 

483 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


kingdom  of  Naples,  and  proclaimed  Robert  of  Geneva  Pope. 
He  took  the  name  of  Clement  VII.  Christendom  was  divided 
between  the  two  Popes.  By  letters  written  on  the  16th 
November  1378,  Charles  V  is  to  notify  the  cardinals  who  had 
remained  at  Avignon  that  France  recognized  as  valid  only 
the  election  of  Clement  VII.  This  last,  truth  to  tell,  was  of 
his  lineage.  Even  in  France  there  was  not  a  unanimous 
agreement,  as  the  University  of  Paris  pronounced  in  favour 
of  Urban  VI.  The  Great  Schism  is  to  last  until  1449. 

There  was  peace  more  or  less  complete  on  land.  It  was 
more  difficult  to  make  it  respected,  at  sea,  where  the  vessels 
of  the  two  nations  continued  to  run  foul  of  one  another  in 
bloody  conflicts.  A  fairly  important  naval  battle  was  fought 
in  1379.  The  French  won  and  captured  a  part  of  the  English 
marine.  The  policy  of  Charles  V  in  Brittany,  which  already 
tended  towards  the  union  of  the  province  with  the  Crown, 
joined  in  a  common  resistance  the  partisans  of  the  two  rival 
houses.  In  March  to  April  1379  there  was  formed  a  league 
against  the  King  of  France,  to  which  rallied  Jean  de  Penthièvre. 
Du  Guesclin  himself  was  on  the  point  of  breaking  his  Constable’s 
sword. 

In  the  towns  the  struggle  over  the  collection  of  the  taxes 
still  went  on  between  the  “  Commonalty,”  the  popular  party, 
and  the  Patricians.  Troubles  broke  out  in  Puy,  Alais,  and 
Clermont-L ’Hérault  ;  at  Montpelier  they  assumed  a  sufficiently 
serious  character. 

In  Flanders  the  towns  went  on  with  their  armed  struggles 
against  one  another.  Bruges  bore  with  impatience  the  domina¬ 
tion  of  Ghent.  After  some  successes  the  people  of  Bruges 
were  conquered.  The  men  of  Ghent  sacked  Bruges  and  extended 
their  authority  over  the  greater  part  of  Flanders. 

The  year  1380  sees  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Wise. 
The  brigands  and  highwaymen  had  found  refuge  in  the 
mountains  of  Auvergne.  They  were  masters  of  Carlat,  and 
threatened  Aurillac  and  St.  Flour.  Du  Guesclin,  who  marched 
against  them,  had  stopped  before  Châteauneuf  -  Randon 
(senechausée  of  Beaucaire),  occupied  by  the  King’s  enemies. 
He  arranged  the  siege,  and  the  place  was  at  the  point  of  sur¬ 
render  when  the  great  soldier  died  (14th  July  1380).  History 
484 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


relates  that  the  besieged  came  to  lay  the  keys  of  the  fortress 
on  his  coffin.  Shortly  afterwards,  on  the  16th  September  of 
the  same  year,  Charles  Y  died  at  his  residence,  Beauté-sur- 
Marne,  44  at  the  end  of  the  Wood  of  Vincennes.” 

“  He  was  very  wise  and  very  moral,  and  a  good  judge  of 
honour  and  estate  ;  and  by  his  great  good  sense  attracted 
and  overcame  many  of  his  enemies.  He  gathered  together 
great  treasure.  He  took  pleasure  in  raising  noble  buildings.” 

These  lines  were  written  by  the  Chronicler  of  the  first  four 
Valois.  One  finds  in  them  nothing  to  discount  and  little  to 
add. 

Charles  V’s  financial  administration  is  worthy  of  admiration. 
We  have  seen  in  what  condition  State  affairs  were  transmitted 
to  him.  What  efforts  he  had  had  to  make  to  re-establish  them  ! 
He  encouraged  literature  and  art  and  formed  a  library  at 
the  Louvre.  He  built  some  magnificent  monuments.  The 
44  Louvre  of  Charles  V  ”  is  known  to  us,  thanks  to  the  marvel¬ 
lous  painting  of  the  brothers  Malewel.  And  he  left  at  his 
death  a  reserve  of  seventeen  millions. 

On  his  death- bed,  however,  the  excellent  Prince  regretted 
having  established  permanent  taxes,  thus  entering  on  the  road 
of  modern  finance  and  breaking  with  feudal  custom.  44  Con¬ 
cerning  these  aids  of  the  kingdom  of  France,”  he  said  to  his  son 
in  his  last  moments,  44  by  which  the  poor  people  are  so  heavily 
burdened,  consult  your  conscience  and  remove  as  many  as 
you  can  ;  they  are  things  which  I  have  supported,  but  which 
grieve  me  much  and  are  heavy  upon  me.  .  .  .”  He  also 
advised  his  son  to  marry  a  German  princess,  in  order  to  find 
in  those  parts  alliance  against  the  English.  It  must  be  said 
that  in  those  days  there  still  reigned  in  Germany  Charles  IV 
of  the  House  of  Luxemburg,  favourable  to  the  French  dynasty, 
and  who  had  paid  a  friendly  visit  to  Charles  V  at  the  Louvre 
in  1378. 

The  revolutionary  disturbances,  which  had  begun  in  the 
last  years  of  the  reign  of  Charles  V,  grew  worse  in  the  first 

years  of  the  reign  of  Charles  VI.  They  also 

Well  Beloved  broke  ou^  England  as  well  as  in  France.  There 

was  the  insurrection  of  the  Maillets  (Hammers) 
in  Paris  and  of  the  Harelle  at  Rouen.  Serious  risings  accom- 

485 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


panied  by  pillage  and  bloodshed  broke  out  at  Sens,  St. 
Quentin,  and  Compiègne  ;  but  while,  in  the  towns  of  the  North, 
under  the  suzerainty  of  the  King  of  France,  the  seditious 
movements  against  the  taxes  are  the  work  of  the  popular 
party  ;  in  Aquitaine,  on  the  contrary,  and  adjacent  provinces, 
under  the  English  suzerainty,  they  have  for  instigators  members 
of  the  great  Nobility  and  their  adherents. 

During  the  minority  of  Charles  VI,  the  kingdom  is  governed 
by  his  uncles,  Louis,  Duke  of  Anjou,  and  Philip  the  Bold, 
Duke  of  Burgundy,  both  men  of  great  worth.  Louis  of  Anjou, 
a  skilful  diplomat,  an  elegant  speaker,  and  a  splendid  noble¬ 
man,  had  won  some  fine  successes  in  war.  He  had  driven  the 
English  from  the  southern  provinces.  Philip  the  Bold  is  shown 
to  us  by  Christine  de  Pisan  as  44  a  prince  of  great  knowledge, 
industry,  and  will.”  During  the  reign  of  his  brother,  Charles  V, 
Philip  the  Bold  had  inspired  his  foreign  policy.  He  had  in¬ 
clined  him  to  German  alliances  in  opposition  to  the  English. 
Under  his  influence,  and,  moreover,  in  conformity  with  the  last 
wishes  of  Charles  V,  the  betrothal  was  concluded  of  Charles  VI 
with  the  too  famous  Isabel  of  Bavaria,  daughter  of  Duke  Stephen 
of  Agrapha,  and  granddaughter  of  Bernabo  Visconti.  In 
July  1385  the  two  young  fiancés  met  at  Amiens.  They  were 
charmed  with  each  other  from  the  first.  Charles  VI  fell 
violently  in  love  with  his  wife.  On  the  other  hand,  Louis  of 
Orleans,  the  brother  of  Charles  VI,  was  to  marry  Valentina 
Visconti,  the  daughter  of  Gian  Galeazzo,  Duke  of  Milan.  It 
was  stipulated  that  the  rights  of  Gian  Galeazzo  over  the  Duchy 
of  Milan  should  pass  to  his  daughter.  Louis  XII,  the  King 
of  France,  the  son  of  Charles  of  Orleans,  and  grandson  of  Louis 
of  Orleans,  will  one  day  claim  these  rights  which  will  prolong 
the  Italian  wars  with  their  infinite  consequences. 

The  war  with  England  was  resumed  in  August  1388.  A 
new  expedition  across  the  Channel  was  planned.  Charles  VI 
left  Paris  animated  with  immense  ardour.  He  said  again  and 
again  44  that  he  would  not  return  before  he  had  been  in 
England.”  In  November  1388  the  young  King  was  declared  of 
age.  He  was,  in  fact,  twenty  years  old.  Charles  VI  informed 
his  uncles  that  he  would  henceforth  rule  alone.  He  wisely 
again  put  the  administration  into  the  hands  of  those  who  had 
486 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


been  the  good  councillors  of  his  father  :  Bureau  de  la  Rivière, 
Jean  le  Mercier,  the  Constable  of  Clisson,  Le  Besgue  de  Villaine, 
Jean  de  Montaigu,  men  of  the  burgess  class  or  of  the  lesser 
Nobility,  whom  the  great  lords,  the  princes  of  the  blood  royal 
whom  they  had  ousted,  called  contemptuously  the  Marmousets , 
from  the  name  of  the  little  stone  figures,  thick-set  and  grotesque, 
sculptured  on  the  walls  of  buildings. 

At  twenty,  Charles  VI  was  not  the  Prince  worn  out  by 
illness  and  whom  we  picture,  mad  and  weary,  in  the  arms  of 
the  amiable  little  Odette  de  Champdivers.  He  was  tall  and 
strong,  a  fine  man,  with  his  fair  hair  falling  in  thick  curls  on 
his  shoulders,  and  a  beard  beginning  to  grow.  He  loved 
physical  exercises  and  excelled  in  them,  showed  himself  of  a 
warlike,  bustling,  and  enterprising  temperament  ;  generous 
to  excess,  gallant,  a  patron  of  the  arts  :  in  short,  a  perfect 
Valois. 

Under  the  wise  administration  of  the  Marmousets ,  the  king¬ 
dom  regained  a  measure  of  prosperity.  At  the  entry  of  Queen 
Isabel  into  Paris,  on  the  22nd  April  1389,  there  was  seen  a 
striking  display  of  luxury  not  only  on  the  part  of  the  lords  of 
the  Court,  but  also  among  the  burgesses  :  “  The  houses  decorated 
with  cloths  of  high  lustre,  silken  materials,  and  precious  stuffs  ; 
women  and  young  girls  adorned  with  rich  necklaces  and  long 
robes  embroidered  in  purple  and  gold  ”  (Monk  of  St.  Denis). 

One  must  point  out  this  surprising  contrast  in  the  Hundred 
Years  War  :  in  the  midst  of  profound  wretchedness,  of  paralysed 
trade,  the  devastation  of  the  countryside,  of  plundering  and 
burning,  we  suddenly  see  sumptuous  feasts  marked  by  Panta- 
gruelian  orgies  in  which  the  whole  population  takes  part  : 
dreams  of  the  thousand  and  one  nights.  Perhaps  the  explana¬ 
tion  is  to  be  found  in  the  exaggerations  of  the  chroniclers 
when  they  are  describing  both  the  days  of  feast  and  jollity 
and  the  scenes  of  desolation  and  misery. 

A  crusade  against  the  Barbary  pirates,  in  1390,  has  not 
been  sufficiently  noticed.  We  know  that  at  this  time  a  number 
of  French  knights  had  gone  to  Hungary  to  fight  the  Turks  ; 
here  are  more  of  them  on  the  coasts  of  Africa,  where  they  sail 
in  the  company  of  Genoese  and  English.  Under  the  command 
of  Louis  de  Bourbon,  the  expedition  lands  in  Africa,  gains  a 

487 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


brilliant  victory  over  the  pirates,  forces  them  to  set  free  their 
Christian  captives,  and  lays  siege  to  Tunis.  A  dispute  which 
supervened,  not  between  the  French  and  English,  but  between 
the  French  and  the  Genoese,  prevented  the  achievement  of 
the  results  expected. 

On  the  14th  June  1392,  there  reached  the  Hotel  St.  Paul, 
where  the  Royal  Court  was  staying,  an  astounding  piece  of 
news.  The  Constable  of  France,  Olivier  de  Clisson,  had  just 
been  assassinated  by  Pierre  de  Craon.  The  murderer  found 
refuge  with  the  Duke  of  Brittany.  Charles  VI  put  himself  at 
the  head  of  an  expedition  to  avenge  his  Constable,  when,  in  the 
plain  of  Le  Mans,  on  the  skirts  of  the  forest,  he  was  seized  with 
an  attack  of  violent  madness  (5th  August  1392). 

The  Chronicler  of  the  first  four  Valois  has  described  this 
famous  scene  :  “  When  the  King  of  France  .  .  .  was  about 
to  enter  the  forest  of  Le  Mans,  on  the  fifth  day  of  August,  there 
came  before  him  a  figure  with  distorted  countenance,  saying  : 

“  4  King,  if  you  enter  the  forest  to  go  to  Le  Mans  there  will 
be  a  misadventure  !  ’ 

41  Then  came  a  madman  with  distorted  face  who  seized  the 
King’s  bridle  and  said  to  him  : 

4  4  4  If  you  go  on  you  are  a  dead  man  !  ’ 

44  The  King  wanted  to  free  himself  from  the  madman,  and 
came  to  his  page  to  get  his  sword.  And  the  page  was 
afraid  and  ran  away,  and  the  King  after  him.  And  he  took 
the  sword  and  went  mad  with  anger  and  vexation,  having 
been  made  desperate,  or  poisoned,  or  bewitched,  or  possessed. 
For  when  he  had  got  the  sword  he  ran  upon  those  around 
him  and  killed  many  of  them.  And  no  one  ever  knew  what 
became  of  the  aforesaid  messenger  or  the  madman.  And  the 
King  was  only  secured  with  great  difficulty  ;  for  no  one  dared 
to  approach  him,  but  he  was  at  length  taken  by  a  knight  from 
Caux.” 

We  have  spoken  of  the  delicate  health  of  Charles  V,  the 
father  of  Charles  VI,  and  the  mental  condition  of  his  mother, 
Jeanne  de  Bourbon,  must  be  remembered.  For  a  time  she  lost 
all  sense  and  memory  ;  and  then  returned  to  sanity  :  a  cure 
which  contemporaries  attributed  to  pilgrimages.  There  lies 
the  origin  of  Charles  Vi’s  madness.  It  did  not  affect  him 
488 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 

continuously.  His  brain  sometimes  recovered  for  a  time,  more 
or  less  protracted  ;  then  came  relapses  which,  each  time,  threw 
him  into  a  more  serious  condition. 

No  greater  misfortune  could  have  fallen  upon  France. 
We  have  seen  that  the  conditions  of  the  period  made  the 
government  of  the  King  necessary.  There  is  no  use  in  ex¬ 
patiating  on  this  with  vain  lamentations.  One  might  regret 
also  that  men  have  not  eyes  at  the  back  of  the  head,  which  would 
be  very  convenient,  as  they  could  then  see  behind  as  well  as 
in  front.  Let  us  accept  France  as  she  has  formed  herself 
through  the  centuries.  Through  the  fall  of  the  royal  authority 
the  country  in  a  fatal  manner  falls  back  into  anarchy.  We 
have  seen  the  terrible  effects  of  the  captivity  of  King  John. 
The  madness  of  Charles  VI  is  to  be  for  the  country  another 
kind  of  royal  captivity  and  still  worse  in  its  effects.  Power 
passes  into  the  hands  of  the  King’s  uncles,  above  all,  to  Philip 
the  Bold,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  younger  brother  of  the  King, 
Louis  of  Orleans. 

This  Louis  of  Orleans  is  perhaps  the  most  attractive  figure 
of  the  period.  Young,  handsome,  elegant,  he  wore  with  ease 
the  maddest  costumes. 

He  had,  through  the  cares  of  Charles  the  Wise,  profited 
by  the  most  splendid  education,  to  which  literature  and  the 
fine  arts  had  added  the  brilliance  of  their  fine  flowers.  He  had 
married  Valentina  Visconti,  the  daughter  of  Galeazzo  I,  Duke 
of  Milan  ;  but  he  was  no  model  husband  : 

“  Yes,  I  have  loved,”  he  said,  “  and  I  have  been  loved. 
Love  has  done  it.”  Love  had  a  broad  back  ! 

He  was  bold,  enterprising,  shining  in  jousts  and  tourna¬ 
ments  ;  but  under  this  frivolous  exterior  he  hid  a  wary  political 
sense.  Like  his  father  and  his  uncle,  Jean  de  Berry,  he  was  a 
great  builder.  He  had  the  Château  of  Pierrefonds  built  and  the 
famous  castle  of  Coucy  enlarged. 

His  domains  were  very  extensive  :  the  Duchy  of  Orleans, 
Périgord,  the  counties  of  Valois,  Beaumont,  Dreux,  Blois, 
Dunois,  Soissons,  Angoulême,  and  Porcien  ;  the  lordship  of 
Coucy,  the  province  of  Asti  in  Italy.  But  these  wealthy  and 
important  territories  had  not  the  cohesion  of  those  which  guaran¬ 
teed  the  power  of  his  two  uncles,  the  Dukes  of  Burgundy  and 

489 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Berry.  Louis,  Duke  of  Anjou,  had  died  on  the  20th  September 
1384.  Louis  of  Orleans  endeavoured  to  unite  his  lands  in  one 
block.  He  acquired  the  County  of  Vertus  and  the  Duchy 
of  Luxemburg.  In  this  way  he  tended  to  form  between  the 
Marne  and  the  Meuse  an  important  State  which  would  de¬ 
finitely  have  separated  into  two  slices,  at  a  distance  from  each 
other,  the  possessions  of  the  Grand  Duke  of  the  West,  as  the 
Duke  of  Burgundy  was  called,  Artois  and  Flanders  to  the  North- 
West,  and  the  Duchy  of  Burgundy  to  the  South-East,  which 
Philip  the  Bold,  and  still  more  after  him  his  son  John  the  Fear¬ 
less,  will  have  an  ardent  ambition  to  unite.  From  this  comes  a 
first  cause  of  conflict,  to  which  will  be  added  a  rivalry  for  power  : 
the  source  of  the  violent  hatred  which  arose  between  Louis  of 
Orleans  and  John  the  Fearless. 

Let  us  read  carefully  the  lines  devoted  by  Christine  de 
Pisan  to  Louis  of  Orleans  : 

“  This  prince  loves  gentlemen  and  men  of  honour  who, 
from  valour,  travel  and  try  to  increase  the  honour  and  the  name 
of  France  in  many  lands,  helps  them  with  his  possessions, 
honours  and  supports  them.  He  is  to-day  the  resort  and  refuge 
of  the  chivalry  of  France,  of  which  he  holds  a  noble  and  very 
fine  court  with  gentlemen  young,  handsome,  comely,  and  well 
apparelled,  all  ready  to  do  good  deeds  :  they  come  to  him  from 
all  parts  by  reason  of  his  splendid  youth  and  from  hope  of  his 
benefits,  and  he  receives  them  amiably.” 

To  re-establish  peace  between  France  and  England,  Philip 
of  Burgundy  succeeded  in  concluding  at  Calais,  on  the  4th 
November  1396,  the  marriage  of  Isabel,  the  daughter  of  Charles 
VI,  with  Richard  II,  the  English  King.  The  young  wife  was 
seven  years  old.  The  truce  established  between  the  two  crowns, 
which  should  have  ended  on  the  29th  September  1398,  had  been 
prolonged  on  the  9th  March  1396  for  twenty-eight  years.  It 
seemed  to  be  the  dawn  of  a  definite  peace.  France  might  then 
have  hoped  for  some  years  of  beneficent  and  curative  repose, 
when  two  terrible  crimes — one  in  England,  the  other  in  France 
— came  to  plunge  our  unhappy  country  once  more  into  a  period 
of  disturbance,  of  civil  and  foreign  wars  more  frightful  still 
than  that  from  which  it  had  emerged. 

In  1399  Richard  II,  King  of  England,  and  son-in-law  of 

490 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


Charles  VI,  was  overthrown  by  Henry  of  Lancaster  and,  in 
March  1400,  was  assassinated  in  the  prison  in  which  he  had 
been  interned.  The  Duke  of  Lancaster  ascended  the  throne  of 
England  as  Henry  IV.  The  hostility  against  France,  or  more 
accurately  the  lure  of  the  beautiful  towns  and  countryside  of 
France  as  plunder  for  the  English  soldiery,  had  been  one  of 
the  causes  of  the  movement  set  going  against  Richard  II. 
Louis  of  Orleans  sent  a  personal  defiance  to  the  new  King  of 
England,  who  had  put  to  death  his  niece’s  husband.  The  war 
was  about  to  be  rekindled. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  Paris,  Queen  Isabel,  who  exercised  the 
regency  during  the  mental  alienation  of  her  husband,  saw  the 
town,  and  before  long  the  country,  divided  into  two  hostile 
camps.  At  the  Hôtel  d’Artois  was  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  with 
his  two  sons  J ean  and  Antoine.  The  Burgundian  princes  grouped 
round  them  many  men-at-arms,  a  great  number  of  them  for¬ 
eigners — Flemings,  Brabançons,  German  cavalrymen.  And 
Christine  de  Pisan  has  shown  us  the  Duke  of  Orleans  on  his 
side  collecting  round  him  a  numerous  knighthood.  Louis  of 
Orleans  held  his  Court  in  his  house  near  the  gate  of  St.  Antoine. 
Two  enemy  camps  disputed  the  government  of  the  kingdom, 
ready  to  come  to  blows  ;  but  let  us  not  be  deceived  :  under 
cover  of  the  Houses  of  Orleans  and  Burgundy,  it  will  be  the  old 
struggle  between  the  aristocratic  and  the  democratic  elements, 
between  the  “  great  ”  and  the  “  small,”  which  will  be  pursued. 
The  high  aristocracy  and  the  Patricians  will  support  those  of 
Orleans,  who  are  to  become  the  Armagnacs  ;  the  popular 
elements  will  be  Burgundians.  And  as  the  English,  by  the  very 
fact  of  the  war  and  the  cruelties  it  entailed,  will  become  daily 
more  figured  as  foreigners  and  enemies  from  outside,  the  Dukes 
of  Burgundy  will  seem  very  suitable  to  give  a  French  physiog¬ 
nomy  to  those  who  would  have  disliked  to  make  common  cause 
with  the  English. 

On  the  1st  July  1402,  Charles  VI  confirmed  to  his  wife 
Isabel  the  authority  which  he  had  previously  delegated  to  her, 
his  14  absence  ”  making  it  impossible  for  him  to  govern  the 
kingdom.  On  the  22nd  February  1403  was  born  the  young 
prince  who  was  one  day  to  be  Charles  VII,  and  who  in  memory  of 
his  elder  brother,  the  Dauphin,  who  had  died  in  his  ninth  year, 

491 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

was  also  named  Charles.  He  was  the  Queen’s  eleventh  child. 
The  father  was  quite  mad. 

On  the  27th  April  of  the  following  year  Philip  the  Bold, 
Duke  of  Burgundy,  died.  His  son,  John  the  Fearless,  was  thirty- 
three  years  old.  He  had  won  this  fine  name  at  the  battle  of 
Nicopolis  against  the  Turks  on  the  25th  September  1396. 
4 4  This  John,”  writes  Olivier  de  la  Marche, 44  was  very  courageous 
and  high  spirited,  and  was  a  man  subtle,  doubting,  and  suspicious, 
and  trusted  no  one.  For  this  reason  he  always  wore  armour 
under  his  robe  and  had  his  sword  girt  and  made  himself  re¬ 
doubted  and  feared  above  all  others.”  He  was  little,  with  a 
big  head  and  frog’s  eyes.  He  stammered  in  his  speech,  was 
ambitious  and  greedy,  but  had  a  familiar  and  popular  manner. 
People  were  surprised,  and  then  flattered,  to  find  a  great  prince 
such  a  good  fellow  ;  and  this  created  for  him  faithful  servants. 

Queen  Isabel  of  Bavaria,  very  sensitive  to  gracefulness  and 
masculine  beauty,  found  him  hideous,  awkward,  silent,  and 
stupid  ;  she  could  not  bear  him.  She  had,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  liveliest  sympathy  for  the  charming  and  sprightly  Duke  of 
Orleans,  her  brother-in-law.  If  we  may  believe  the  Monk  of 
St.  Denis,  Isabel  and  Louis  were  seldom  away  from  each  other. 

44  They  put  all  their  vanity  in  wealth,  all  their  pleasure  in 
bodily  delight.  .  .  .  They  so  far  forgot  the  rights  and  duties  of 
royalty  that  they  had  become  an  object  of  scandal  for  France 
and  a  tale  among  foreign  nations.”  Charles  VI  was  abandoned 
by  his  wife  and  brother  to  his  lamentable  disorder.  Pale, 
dirty,  and  ragged,  he  wandered  about  with  vacant  eyes,  covered 
with  pimples,  with  his  hair,  beard,  and  nails  longer  than  those  of 
a  hermit  in  a  forest.  A  gracious  child  with  a  charming  laugh 
and  a  charming  name,  Odette  de  Champdivers,  conceived  a 
tender  pitifulness  towards  her  King.  She  took  him,  washed 
and  cleaned  him,  cut  his  nails,  cared  for  him  like  a  sister  of 
charity,  but  with  very  tender  feelings.  She  took  him  on  her 
knees  and  rocked  him,  singing  to  him,  like  a  little  child.  She 
was  in  love  with  him  :  an  exquisite  and  poignant  idyll. 

The  hostility  between  the  Houses  of  Orleans  and  Burgundy 
grew  more  marked.  The  character  of  John  the  Fearless,  such 
as  we  have  seen  it,  did  not  make  for  peace.  44  The  bolts  and 
keys  of  the  gates  of  Paris  were  changed,  we  read  in  the  precious 
492 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


Journal  of  a  Burgess  of  Paris  (  Journal  a  un  bourgeois  de  Paris), 
and  my  lord  of  Berry  and  my  lord  of  Bourbon  were  made 
captains  of  the  town  of  Paris,  and  there  came  so  great  a  multi¬ 
tude  of  men-at-arms  to  Paris  that  in  the  villages  around  there 
seemed  to  be  no  people  left  ;  at  the  same  time  the  men  of  the 
aforesaid  Duke  of  Burgundy  took  nothing  without  paying, 
and  gave  an  account  each  evening  to  their  hosts,  and  paid  there 
and  then.” 

On  the  23rd  November  1407,  the  Duke  of  Orleans  had  gone 
to  the  Hôtel  Barbette,  in  Marais,  to  see  Queen  Isabel,  who  was 
recovering  from  childbirth.  At  eight  o’clock  in  the  evening  he 
was  called.  Louis  of  Orleans  set  out,  followed  by  six  or  eight 
companions,  when  he  was  attacked  in  the  rue  Vieille-du-Temple 
by  a  band  of  assassins,  under  the  command  of  a  certain  Raoul 
d’Anquetonville,  and  left  dead  on  the  spot. 

The  cause  of  the  victim  was  taken  up  by  one  of  the  greatest 
lords  of  the  Duchy  of  Aquitaine,  Bernard  d’Armagnac.  His 
daughter  married  Charles,  the  son  of  Louis  of  Orleans.  His 
father,  Jean  d’Armagnac,  had  had  a  preponderating  rôle  in  the 
struggles  against  the  Black  Prince  in  Guienne. 

From  the  reign  of  Philip  the  Fair,  about  the  end  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  the  Armagnac  family  appeared  in  the  South 
at  the  head  of  a  sort  of  confederation  in  which  was  grouped 
the  Nobility  hostile  to  England.  Through  the  valour  of  Jean 
d’Armagnac  and  of  his  son  Bernard  this  noble  Southern  family 
is  to  find  itself  put  naturally  at  the  head  of  the  elements  favour¬ 
able  to  the  fleur-de-lis.  The  Armagnacs  will  take  for  their 
rallying  sign  the  white  cross  or  scarf  ;  the  Burgundians  will 
take,  in  opposition,  the  red  cross  of  the  English,  but  will  make 
a  St.  Andrew’s  Cross  of  it. 

After  the  assassination  of  Louis  of  Orleans,  John  the  Fearless 
reigned  as  master  in  Paris.  Popular  resentment  was  bridled. 
The  Armagnacs  were  set  upon  “  like  dogs,”  says  the  Bourgeois 
de  Paris.  Individual  vengeance  had  a  fine  field  of  action. 
44  And  whoever  was  killed  henceforward,  people Jsaid,  4  He  is 
an  Armagnac  !  ’  ” 

Round  the  young  Charles'rof  Orleans,  now  the  son-in-law 
of  Bernard  VII  of  Armagnac,  the  great  Nobility  was  grouped  : 
the  Dukes  of  Bourbon  and  Brittany,  the  Counts  of  Clermont 

493 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


and  Alençon,  the  great  families  of  the  South,  the  de  1’ Isles  and 
the  d’Albrets.  However,  demagogism  broke  out  in  Paris. 
The  powerful  corporation  of  the  butchers,  with  their  acolytes, 
the  tanners,  tripe-dealers,  and  curriers  headed  the  movement 
of  which  the  hangman  Capeluehe  and  the  flayer  Simon  Caboche, 
with  arms  red  with  blood,  were  the  rude  leaders.  Caboche  gave 
his  name  to  the  Cabochian  insurrection. 

After  scenes  of  slaughter  and  pillage,  they  began  to  think 
about  reform.  The  University  of  Paris,  animated  by  a  demo¬ 
cratic  spirit,  lent  its  light  to  the  movement.  From  this  moment 
is  seen  pushing  himself  to  the  front,  ambitious,  active,  rough, 
and  devoid  of  scruple,  the  cleric  who  is  to  become  so  sadly 
famous,  Pierre  Cauchon.  In  the  higher  class  of  burgesses, 
some  minds,  moulded  on  the  model  of  Etienne  Marcel,  did  not 
fail  to  make  their  influence  felt.  In  such  circumstances,  and 
favoured  by  the  meeting  of  the  States -General  opened  on 
the  30th  January  1413,  the  famous  Ordonnance  Cabochienne 
was  drawn  up. 

It  had  been  prepared  silently,  laboriously,  by  men  of  study 
and  reflection,  among  whom  were  distinguished  the  Bishop 
of  Tournai  and  the  Abbot  of  Moutier-St.-Jean,  the  lord  of 
Offémont,  and  the  vidame  of  Amiens,  the  King’s  almoner 
Jean  Courtecuisse,  Pierre  Cauchon,  and  Jean  de  l’Olive,  échevin 
of  Paris.  The  butchers  and  their  assistants,  the  flayers,  de¬ 
manded  that  it  should  be  published  and  put  into  action,  follow¬ 
ing  a  particularly  violent  day  (24th  May  1413),  as  though  to 
cover  with  a  cloak  of  wisdom  their  red  saturnalia.  The 
Ordonnance  Cabochienne  was  published  on  the  26th  to  27th  May 
1413.  The  complaints  formulated  by  the  delegates  of  the 
various  provinces  to  the  States-General  in  the  session  of  the 
preceding  3rd  February,  constituted  a  preface  for  it. 

The  Ordonnance  Cabochienne ,  thus  named  from  the  circum¬ 
stances  in  which  it  had  its  origin,  although  the  Cabochiens 
had  taken  no  part  in  its  compilation — they  would  not  have 
been  able  to  do  it — is  a  regulation  of  administration  rather 
than  a  code  of  reforms  in  law  and  custom.  There  were  measures 
against  dishonest  ministers  of  finance,  and  in  favour  of  a  more 
rapid  process  of  justice  ;  efforts  to  produce  a  less  arbitrary 
central  administration,  and  one  which  would  be  simpler  and 
494 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


cheaper  :  the  whole  was  well  conceived.  It  is  a  pity  that  these 
aspirations  towards  reform  should  have  foundered  in  the 
reaction  against  the  Cabochian  demagogism  which  was  about 
to  supervene.  On  the  4th  August  1413  the  Cabochiens  were 
defeated  in  Paris  itself  ;  those  most  compromised  fled.  On  the 
1st  September,  Charles  of  Orleans  made  a  triumphal  entry 
into  the  great  city.  The  Provost  of  the  Merchants,  the  échevins, 
the  burgesses  of  Paris  in  thousands,  had  donned  violet  capes 
in  stuff  of  two  shades,  bearing  a  great  white  cross,  with  the 
device  embroidered  in  silver  thread  :  “  The  right  road  ”  (Le 
droit  chemin).  “  And  then  they  began  to  govern,”  writes  the 
“  Bourgeois  de  Paris,”  who  belongs  to  the  Burgundian  party. 
“  They  put  in  such  a  state  those  who  had  been  concerned  with 
the  government  of  the  King  and  the  good  town  of  Paris,  that 
some  fled  to  Flanders,  others  into  the  Empire  or  across  the  sea, 
no  matter  where,  and  they  thought  themselves  lucky  when 
they  could  escape  as  vagrants  or  pages  or  vendors  of  harness 
or  in  any  other  way  ;  and  none  was  so  bold  as  to  speak  against 
them  (the  Armagnacs).”  In  a  judicial  meeting  of  the  Parlement 
(lit  de  justice )  on  the  5th  September  1413,  the  Ordonnance 
Cabochienne  will  be  quashed  and  nullified,  to  the  great  regret 
of  the  better  minds  of  whom  the  Monk  of  St.  Denis  forms  the 
sad  echo. 

On  the  14th  July  1412,  at  Bourges,  the  Duke  of  Burgundy 
had  been  induced  to  conclude  a  peace  with  the  confederate 
princes  of  the  Orleans  party.  The  Peace  of  Bourges  was 
confirmed  at  Auxerre  on  the  22nd  August  ;  but  the  divisions 
went  too  deep  and  were  not  limited  to  the  heads  of  the  parties. 
In  the  very  heart  of  the  nation  the  hostility  between  the  two 
factions  remained  active.  The  hour  had  not  yet  sounded 
when  such  agreements  could  be  rendered  efficacious.  We  shall 
see  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  acting  as  sovereign  over  the  whole 
kingdom  in  the  face  of  the  sovereign  and  his  representatives  : 
giving  to  the  French  orders  which  will  be  carried  out,  command¬ 
ing  in  a  number  of  towns  and  fortresses.  Many  Frenchmen 
hesitated  between  the  parties.  We  have  seen  that  the  Duke  of 
Orleans  and  his  adherents  entering  Paris  in  triumph  had  caused 
to  be  embroidered  in  silver  thread  on  their  capes  and  coats  : 
44  The  right  road.”  But  many  Frenchmen  questioned  whether 

495 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


the  right  road  was  indeed  in  their  footsteps.  “  Fortune  worked 
at  random,”  writes  the  Bourgeois  de  Paris,  “  and  there  was 
neither  noble  nor  any  other  who  knew  what  was  best.” 

The  King  of  England,  Henry  IV,  died  on  the  20th  March 
1413.  For  several  years  his  serious  ill-health  had  prevented 
his  actively  directing  his  government  and  the  French  War. 
The  attack  will  find  again  its  sting  under  his  son  Henry  V,  a 
young  prince  of  twenty-seven,  sharp  and  harsh,  hard  and 
intelligent,  with  an  austere  energy,  a  valour  founded  in  devotion 
and  an  ambition  devoid  of  scruples.  Fie  dreamed  of  renewing 
the  exploits  of  Edward  III,  whose  vast  designs  he  resumed. 
He  had  practised  war  from  his  earliest  youth.  He  was  hand¬ 
some  and  very  brave,  Comines  will  say,  and  “had  wise  and 
valiant  men  and  very  great  leaders,  such  as  the  Earl  of 
Salisbury  (Thomas  Montagu)  and  Talbot.” 

On  the  13th  August  1415,  Henry  V  landed  on  the  outskirts 
of  Harfleur.  His  fleet  spread  over  France  2500  knights,  7000 
archers,  120  underminers,  and  75  gunners.  As  a  climax  of 
misfortune  the  German  Emperor  abandoned  the  cause  of 
Charles  VI,  gave  to  Henry  V  the  title  of  “  King  of  France,” 
and  promised  him  assistance  in  the  recovery  of  “  his  ”  kingdom. 
We  can  understand  the  ease  with  which  a  small  number  of 
English  are  about  to  conquer  extensive  territories  and  establish 
their  domination  on  solid  foundations  in  considering  the  division 
of  the  kingdom  between  the  two  parties,  the  Armagnacs  or 
partisans  of  the  Court,  and  the  Burgundians,  the  partisans 
of  John  the  Fearless.  Each  side  has  its  banner,  its  war  cry, 
and  its  soldiery.  To  take,  as  example,  the  bailliages  of  Rouen, 
Gisors,  and  Caux,  we  see  that  the  orders  of  the  French  Court 
were  followed  at  Neufchâtel-en-Bray,  Pont-de-FArche,  Louviers, 
Mortemer,  Beaussault,  Arques,  Charlemesnil,  Longueville, 
Fontaines-le-Bourg,  Cailly,  Bellencombre,  Lindebeuf,  Préaux, 
Château-Gaillard,  Goulet-les- Vernon,  Douville,  and  Logempré 
in  the  valley  of  the  Andelle  ;  while  there  were  ranged  under 
the  banners  of  the  opposite  party  Rouen,  Mantes,  Vernon, 
Dieppe,  Caudebec,  Montivilliers,  Fécamp,  Bacqueville,  Graville, 
Rouvray,  Valmont,  and  Houdetot.  In  these  last  localities 
the  King  of  England  was  to  find  support.  These  divisions 
were  repeated  in  the  various  provinces,  and  so  profoundly 
496 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


that  sometimes,  in  the  same  family,  one  saw  some 
members  wearing  the  white  cross  of  the  French  side 
and  the  others  the  red  St.  Andrew’s  cross  of  the  “  Bur¬ 
gundians.” 

However,  the  Armagnacs,  under  the  orders  of  a  great  lord  of 
the  South,  the  Constable  Charles  d’Albret,  had  advanced  to  meet 
the  English.  The  French  chivalry  has  learned  nothing  since 
Creçy  and  Poitiers.  The  lessons  of  defeat,  the  training  afforded 
by  Du  Guesclin,  have  been  in  vain.  The  encounter  took 
place  on  the  Calais  road  between  Framecourt  and  Agincourt. 
The  forces  of  the  Constable  d’Albret  were  three  times  as  large 
as  those  at  the  disposal  of  the  English  King,  who  could  only  draw 
up  900  lances  and  3000  archers.  But  the  French  command 
made  their  dispositions  badly,  in  land  which  was  ploughed  up 
and  muddy.  “  The  King  of  England  won,”  says  Jean  de 
Bueil,  “  because  he  kept  his  men  from  getting  out  of  breath, 
and  at  night  saw  that  they  were  refreshed  ;  and  the  French  did 
the  opposite.  For  at  night  they  lay  in  a  field  where  they  were 
up  to  their  knees  in  mud,  and  next  day  marched  across  a  great 
stretch  of  ploughed  land  to  come  up  to  their  enemy,  and  they 
went  so  far  to  seek  them  that,  when  it  came  to  fighting,  they 
assembled  so  few  men,  and  one  after  another,  and  out  of  breath, 
so  that  they  were  defeated  (25th  October  1415).”  It  is  the  story 
of  the  Horatii  and  the  Curiatii. 

Albret  was  among  the  dead,  the  brave  and  gentle  Charles 
of  Orleans  among  the  prisoners.  The  son  of  the  victim  of  John 
the  Fearless  is  to  be  taken  to  England  where,  contemplating  afar 
off  on  fine  days  the  azure  coast  of  France,  he  will  compose  those 
poems,  delicate  and  full  of  emotion,  with  the  graceful  rhythm 
and  the  fine  play  of  colour  which  are  to  place  him  among  the 
best  French  poets.  As  a  prisoner  of  the  English,  Charles  of 
Orleans  will  arouse  the  ingenuous  and  stirring  enthusiasm  of 
Jeanne  d’Arc. 

The  English  conducted  the  war  cruelly.  Like  the  horrible 
Boches  in  1914-18  they  cut  the  fruit  trees  to  the  ground  in 
order  to  ruin  the  country  over  which  they  passed.  Whole 
villages  were  deserted.  The  good  folk  encumbered  the  roads 
with  brambles,  thorns,  bushes,  and  knotty  trees  in  fear  of  being 
murdered,  robbed,  set  upon,  and  beaten. 

2  i 


497 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Gerson  sketches  with  a  vivid  pen  the  wretched  poverty  of 
Jacques  Bonhomme. 

“  Alas  !  when  a  poor  man  shall  have  paid  his  impost,  his 
villein  tax,  his  salt  tax,  his  hearth  money,  his  fourth,  the  King’s 
spurs,  the  Queen’s  belt,  the  customs,  the  road  tax,  the  tolls — 
not  much  remains  to  him.  Then  will  come  another  levy  newly 
created,  and  sergeants  to  come  and  take  in  pledge  his  pots  and 
his  store.  The  poor  man  will  have  no  bread  to  eat,  except  by 
chance  some  little  rye  or  barley  ;  his  poor  wife  will  be  in  child¬ 
birth,  and  will  have  four  or  six  little  children  round  the  hearth — 
or  by  the  oven,  if  it  chance  to  be  warm — asking  for  bread  and 
crying  with  the  desperation  of  hunger.  The  poor  mother  will 
have  nothing  to  put  into  their  mouths  but  a  little  bread,  even  if 
she  has  this.  This  should  be  sufficient  misery  ;  but  then  will 
come  ruffians  who  will  ransack  everything.  They  will  find,  per¬ 
haps,  a  hen  with  four  chickens,  which  the  wife  was  nourishing 
to  sell  and  pay  the  remainder  of  the  tax,  or  a  new  one  just  levied 
— everything  will  be  taken  or  seized,  and  who  shall  pay  ?  And 
if  the  man  or  woman  protest,  they  will  be  abused,  fined,  or  mal¬ 
treated.  If  they  sue  for  payment  they  will  lose  their  time, 
spend  double,  and  get  nothing  in  the  end  :  or  sometimes,  by 
chance,  a  note  stating  that  to  such  a  person  so  much  is  owing. 

44  4  Very  well  !  ’  says  the  debtor. 

44  And  he  goes  on  owing. 

44  How  could  it  be  worse  for  a  poor  fellow  ?  It  could  hardly 
be  worse.  But  still  worse  is  to  come — soldiers  fighting  with  each 
other  who  are  not  content  to  take  nothing  where  there  is  nothing, 
but  threaten  and  beat  the  man  and  his  wife,  and  set  fire  to  the 
house  unless  they  pay  ransom,  and  make  people  pay  them  in 
unjust  and  crooked  ways,  with  money  or  provisions.  I  will 
not  speak  of  the  outrages  to  women.  .  .  .  And  there  are 
thousands  and  thousands,  and  more  than  ten  thousand,  in  the 
land  in  a  worse  state  than  I  have  described.” 

Is  not  this  an  admirable  passage — terribly  admirable — in 
its  strength,  colour,  and  vividness  ? 

To  Charles  d’Albret  there  succeeded  in  the  office  of  Constable 
Bernard  VII  d’Armagnac,  the  brother-in-law  of  the  Duke  of 
Orleans.  He  was  a  penniless  hero,  but  of  an  illustrious  line, 
with  a  head  as  hard  as  his  iron  helmet  and  with  the  devil  in  him. 
498 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


With  his  cadets  of  Gascony,  of  the  most  authentic  vintage,  he 
will  show  the  Burgundians  some  fine  doings.  Until  his  death 
he  is  to  be  master  of  the  government. 

But  he  could  not  prevent  the  rapid  progress  of  the  English 
who,  in  a  short  time,  found  themselves  masters  of  all  Normandy. 
Thomas  Basin  points  out  :  “  The  English  had  the  ways  open 
before  them.  Everywhere  the  Armagnacs  and  the  Burgundians 
were  fighting  each  other,  without  truce,  animated  by  a  burning 
hate  against  one  another,  so  that  the  English  had  no  difficulty 
in  seizing  towns  and  fortresses.” 

The  defeat  of  Agincourt  let  loose  among  the  Parisians  a 
reaction  against  the  Armagnacs.  The  Dauphin,  the  future 
Charles  VII,  nominated  on  the  14th  June  1417  lieutenant- 
general  of  the  kingdom  in  the  place  of  his  mad  father,  is  obliged 
to  flee.  On  the  28th  May  1418  he  reaches  Melun  at  full  speed. 
He  was  fifteen  years  old. 

The  Bourgeois  de  Paris ,  belonging  to  the  popular  party,  i.e. 
the  Burgundian  party,  hails  the  return  of  his  friends.  During  the 
night  of  the  29th  May  1418  the  gate  of  St.  Germain  is  opened  to 
the  soldiers  of  John  the  Fearless.  They  were  grouped  in  the 
plain  of  Grenelle,  to  the  number  of  six  or  seven  hundred,  under 
the  command  of  the  Lord  of  Bar  and  the  Sire  de  ITsle  Adam. 
44  The  majority  of  the  people,”  writes  the  Bourgeois  de  Paris , 
44  were  for  them.  The  Armagnacs  were  hemmed  in,  the  gates 
of  the  dwellings  broken  in,  their  coffers  emptied,  their  chests 
broken,  their  possessions  plundered.  Very  thankful  were  they 
who  could  hide  in  a  cave  or  cellar  or  any  hiding-place.  They 
were  killed  4  in  great  heaps.’  They  were  sometimes  killed 
ruthlessly  with  great  axes  and  other  weapons,  .  .  .  and  women 
and  children  and  people  who  could  do  them  no  worse  injury 
cursed  them  as  they  passed  by,  saying  : 

4  4  4  Dogs  !  traitors  !  you  are  in  a  better  state  than  you 
deserve.  Would  that  it  pleased  God  to  put  you  all  into  that 
state.’ 

44  And  you  would  not  have  found  in  Paris  a  street  in  which 
there  was  not  some  one  killed  at  every  hundred  steps.  And 
when  they  were  dead,  nothing  remained  to  them  but  their 
coats,  and  they  lay,  like  pigs,  in  the  midst  of  the  mud.” 

Then  there  was  the  horrible  massacre  of  the  prisons,  the 

499 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


slaying  of  the  Armagnacs  shut  up  in  the  Conciergerie.  The  mob 
rushed  upon  it  at  midnight,  4  4  a  confusing  hour  for  a  man  taken 
by  surprise.”  44  They  began  to  cry  aloud  : 

44  4  Kill  !  Kill  these  false  Armagnacs.’ 

44  They  killed,  battered,  slew,  murdered  all  whom  they  found.” 
The  Constable  Bernard  d’Armagnac  was  slaughtered  in  a 
horrible  manner,  his  corpse  dragged  to  the  Palais  de  Justice, 
thrown  naked  on  the  marble  table  in  the  great  hall,  where  the 
butchers,  expert  in  the  business,  flayed  a  great  St.  Andrew’s 
Cross  on  his  breast,  thus  imprinting  on  his  body  the  red  cross  of 
the  Burgundians  (12th  June  1418). 

In  fighting  the  Armagnacs  the  Parisians  did  not  regard 
themselves  as  acting  in  a  way  hostile  to  the  French  Crown.  It 
was  the  Nobility,  they  thought,  who  had  laid  France  open  to 
the  English. 

44  May  God  curse  any  who  should  have  pity  on  those  false 
traitors,  the  Armagnac-English  dogs  !  for  by  them  is  the  king¬ 
dom  of  France,  quite  spoilt  and  wasted  ;  they  sold  it  to  the 
English  ”  ( Bourgeois  de  Paris). 

The  movement  spread  over  the  whole  of  France.  To  free 
oneself  of  an  enemy  one  cried  as  he  passed  :  44  There  goes  an 
Armagnac  !  ”  ( Juvenal  des  Ur  sins).  Every  rich  man  was 
labelled  44  Armagnac.” 

And  the  good  people  of  Paris  celebrated  their  bloody 
triumph  with  as  much  devotion  as  poetry.  In  the  church  of 
St.  Eustache,  44  every  one  who  went  in  had  a  crown  of  red  roses 
(the  colour  of  the  blood  newly  spilt)  ...  ;  but  before  twelve 
o’clock  the  supply  of  chaplets  ran  out  ;  but  the  church  of 
St.  Eustache  was  quite  full  of  people,  and  in  the  church  it  smelt 
as  pleasant  as  though  it  had  been  washed  in  rose-water  ”  ( Bour¬ 
geois  de  Paris). 

About  the  same  time,  the  Great  Schism  seemed  as  though 
it  might  come  to  an  end  through  the  efforts  of  the  Council  of 
Constance  :  the  two  enemy  Popes,  John  XXII  and  Benedict 
XIII,  were  both  deposed  ;  and  the  unity  of  the  Church 
momentarily  restored  by  the  election  of  Martin  V  (November 
1417). 

Soissons,  in  imitation  of  Paris,  turned  Burgundian.  With 
cries  of  44  Death  to  the  Armagnacs  !  ”  the  44  common  people  ” 
500 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


fell  upon  the  rich,  massacring  and  plundering.  The  Armagnacs 
held  the  Dauphin  ;  the  Burgundians  seized  the  Queen.  The 
entry  into  Paris  of  John  the  Fearless,  accompanied  by  Isabel  of 
Bavaria,  was  made  on  the  14th  July  1418.  The  burgesses  came 
to  meet  them  dressed  in  long  blue  robes.  “  And  they  were 
received  with  such  honour  and  joy  as  never  lady  or  lord  had 
ever  been  in  France.  Everywhere  they  passed,  the  people 
cried  aloud,  4  Noël  !  ’  and  there  were  few  who  did  not  weep 
from  joy  and  pity  ”  ( Bourgeois  de  Paris). 

The  Parisians  wept  with  joy — very  good  ;  and  with  pity — 
better  still.  Just  as  the  Dauphin,  Charles  V,  had  not  lost 
confidence  after  Poitiers,  so  was  the  Dauphin,  Charles  VII,  not 
discouraged  after  Agincourt.  He  reorganized  his  army,  assisted 
by  courageous  leaders,  notably  by  the  Breton  Tanguy  du 
Châtel,  the  Provost  of  Paris.  Etampes  is  retaken.  The 
Burgundians  besieging  Montlhéry  quickly  decamp.  The 
Parisians  could  no  longer  go  beyond  their  ramparts  to  look  after 
their  harvests.  We  know  that  Paris  was  still  an  agricultural 
town.  “  That  year  (1418)  the  corn  and  oats  remained  uncut 
all  round  Paris,  for  no  one  dared  to  go  out  because  of  the 
Armagnacs,  who  killed  all  those  they  could  seize  who  belonged 
to  Paris.” 

The  Bourgeois  de  Paris  accuses  the  noblemen  whom  the 
Parisians  had  chosen  as  leaders  of  complicity  with  the 
Armagnacs.  “And  it  is  the  truth  that  if  the  common  folk 
had  had  their  way  there  would  not  have  remained  an  Ar¬ 
magnac  in  France.  In  less  than  two  months  they  would  have 
been  finished  off.” 

In  the  commission  given  by  the  Government  to  the  Admiral 
Robert  de  Braquemont,  the  King’s  lieutenant  in  the  bailliages 
of  Rouen,  Gisors,  and  Caux,  appears  the  care  which  is  taken 
to  put  the  country  into  a  good  state  of  defence.  The  castles 
and  fortresses  which  seem  “  tenable  ”  are  to  be  “  taken  and 
fortified  ”  ;  the  others  which  are  “  not  tenable  ”  are  to  be 
destroyed.  In  each  fortified  town,  in  each  castle,  is  to  be  put 
a  tried  leader.  Finally,  in  some  provinces,  an  agreement  is 
concluded,  a  veritable  treaty  of  peace  directed  against  the 
English,  between  the  leaders  commanding  the  places  holding 
to  the  Dauphin  and  those  commanding  the  places  holding  to 

501 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


the  Duke  of  Burgundy.  The  public  misfortunes  lead  both 
sides  to  begin  to  consider  themselves  as  natural  allies  against 
those  who  have  invaded  the  country  ;  moreover,  a  victorious 
resistance  might  have  been  contemplated,  when  the  drama 
of  the  Bridge  of  Montereau  came  to  plunge  the  country  once 
more  into  an  abyss  of  dissensions,  disorder,  and  misery. 

John  the  Fearless,  after  the  English  had  taken  possession 
of  Normandy,  was  affrighted  by  the  conditions  which  the 
conquerors  sought  to  impose  on  him.  He  wished  to  be  re¬ 
conciled  with  the  King  of  France.  A  meeting  was  arranged 
between  him  and  the  Dauphin  :  it  took  place  on  the  bridge  of 
Montereau-fault- Yonne  on  the  10th  September  1419.  Comines 
has  described  the  scene  : 

“  It  had  been  agreed  that  the  King  (the  Dauphin)  and  he 
(John  the  Fearless)  should  come  to  Montereau-fault- Yonne, 
and  there  was  made  a  bridge  and  a  barrier  in  the  middle  ;  but 
in  the  middle  of  the  aforesaid  barrier  there  was  a  little  'portillon 
which  closed  the  two  sides  ;  by  which  one  could  go  from  one 
side  to  the  other,  when  both  parties  were  willing. 

“  Thus  the  King  was  on  one  side  of  the  bridge  and  the  afore¬ 
said  Duke  John  on  the  other,  accompanied  by  a  great  number 
of  men-at-arms,  and  especially  the  aforesaid  Duke.  They 
began  to  speak  together  on  the  bridge,  and  at  the  spot  where 
they  spoke,  there  were  with  the  said  Duke  only  three  or  four 
persons.  Having  begun  their  parley,  the  Duke  was  so  excited 
or  so  annoyed  at  humiliating  himself  before  the  King  that  he 
opened  from  his  side,  and  the  other  side  was  opened  to  him,  and 
he  passed  with  three  others.  Immediately  he  was  killed/’ 

The  affair  seems  to  have  been  accidental.  There  was  no 
premeditation.  The  innocence  of  Charles  VII  is  established. 
It  was  without  doubt  the  officers  of  the  Dauphin’s  suite  who 
struck  John  the  Fearless,  irritated  “  by  some  outrageous 
words  ”  which  the  latter  let  fall  in  the  course  of  the  discussion 
with  their  master.  We  know  that  John  the  Fearless  was  hasty 
and  easily  carried  away,  and  that  he  expressed  himself  awk¬ 
wardly.  But  he  left  a  son,  Philip  the  Good,  who  is  to  be  the 
“  Grand  Duke  of  the  West,”  very  noble  in  character  and  lofty 
in  his  aims  and  resolutions.  Philip  the  Good  will  set  his  heart 
on  avenging  his  father,  and  unhappily  for  our  country  he  will 
502 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


succeed  only  too  well.  The  alliance  is  cemented  between  the 
Burgundians  and  the  English.  Queen  Isabel  and  the  poor  mad 
King  Charles  VI  are  in  their  power.  Thus  was  brought  about 
the  horrible  Treaty  of  Troyes  (21st  May  1420).  Henry  V,  King 
of  England,  was  to  marry  Catherine,  the  daughter  of  Charles  VI, 
and  would  be  recognized  as  heir,  to  the  throne  of  St.  Louis,  of 
his  poor  father-in-law,  Charles  VI,  who  would  keep  during  his 
deadened  life  the  title  of  King  of  France  and  the  revenues  of 
the  Crown,  but  would  abandon  the  reins  of  government  to  the 
English  monarch. 

The  Bourgeois  de  Paris ,  fundamentally  44  Burgundian,” 
traces  a  famous  picture  of  the  state  of  France  at  that  time. 
Its  features  are  striking.  The  excellent  man  sees  quite  rightly 
the  source  of  the  evils  which  France  is  undergoing  in  the 
divisions  of  parties,  the  responsibility  for  which  he  attributes 
being  frankly  Burgundian  to  the  Armagnacs  and  particularly 
to  him  who  had  been  their  leader,  the  blunt  Constable  of  France. 
44  .  .  .  The  great  mass  of  the  people  who  had  had  the  habit 
of  working  and  staying  safely  at  home,  with  their  wives  and 
families — merchants,  members  of  merchant  companies,  church¬ 
men,  monks,  nuns,  people  of  every  condition — have  been 
turned  out  of  their  houses  like  wild  beasts,  so  that  people  beg 
who  were  accustomed  to  give  ;  others  serve  who  had  formerly 
their  own  servants  ;  some  have  become  thieves  and  murderers 
in  despair  ;  good  maidens  and  honest  women  have  come  to 
shame  through  force  or  otherwise,  having  become  evil  through 
necessity.  How  many  monks,  priests,  ladies  vowed  to  religion 
and  other  gentle  women,  have  left  all  by  force  and  yielded 
body  and  soul  to  despair,  God  knows  how.  Alas  !  so  many 
children  born  dead  for  want  of  help  ;  so  many  dying  without 
confession,  through  tyranny  and  other  causes  ;  so  many  dead 
left  unburied  in  forests  and  other  deserted  places  ;  so  many 
marriages  prevented  from  being  solemnized  ;  so  many  churches 
burned,  and  chapels,  hospitals,  lazar  houses  where  holy  service 
and  works  of  mercy  were  performed,  and  nothing  now  remains 
of  them  but  their  site  ;  so  many  treasures  buried  of  which 
no  good  will  ever  come,  and  jewels  of  the  churches  and  relics 
and  other  things.  In  short,  I  think  that  no  man  could  enumer¬ 
ate  the  great,  miserable  and  damnable  sins  which  have  been 

50§ 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


committed  since  the  unfortunate  and  damnable  arrival  of 
Bernard,  Count  of  Armagnac  and  Constable  of  France,  for, 
since  the  names  came  into  France  of  Burgundian  and  Armagnac, 
all  the  evils  which  could  be  enumerated  have  been  committed 
in  the  kingdom  of  France,  while  the  clamour  of  the  innocent 
blood  which  has  been  shed  cries  to  Heaven  for  vengeance. 
And  I  believe  in  my  heart  that  the  aforesaid  Count  of  Armagnac 
was  a  devil  in  the  form  of  a  man,  for  I  see  none  who  were  for 
him  or  use  his  name,  or  who  wears  his  badge  (the  white  scarf 
of  the  Armagnacs),  who  keeps  the  law  or  the  Christian  faith  ; 
but  they  conduct  themselves  towards  all  over  whom  they  have 
the  mastery  like  people  who  have  denied  their  Creator,  as  can 
be  seen  throughout  the  kingdom  of  France.  For  I  dare  say 
that  the  King  of  England  would  not  have  been  so  bold  as  to 
set  foot  in  France,  nor  would  there  have  been  the  quarrel  of 
this  unhappy  name,  and  all  Normandy  would  still  be  French, 
nor  would  the  noble  blood  of  France  have  been  shed,  nor  the 
lords  of  that  realm  led  into  exile  (as  prisoners  in  England), 
nor  the  battle  lost  and  so  many  good  men  dead,  nor  the  piteous 
day  of  Agincourt  have  ever  been  in  which  the  King  lost  so 
many  of  his  good  and  loyal  friends,  but  for  the  pride  of  this 
unhappy  name  of  Armagnac.  .  .  .  Alas  !  I  do  not  believe 
that  ever  since  Clovis,  France  was  so  desolate  and  divided  as 
she  is  to-day,  for  the  Dauphin  pays  attention  to  nothing,  day 
and  night,  him  and  his,  except  spoiling  the  country  of  his 
father  with  fire  and  blood,  and  the  English  on  their  side  do  as 
much  harm  as  the  Saracens.  But  still  it  is  better  to  be  taken 
by  the  English  than  by  the  Dauphin  or  his  men,  who  call  them¬ 
selves  Armagnacs  ;  and  the  poor  King  and  Queen  stay  at 
Troyes  with  a  poor  suite,  like  fugitives,  and  driven  from  their 
place  by  their  own  child,  which  seems  to  all  good  people  a  great 
pity  to  think  of.” 

It  is  a  precious  page,  and  shows  by  what  obliquity  of  senti¬ 
ment  a  good  Frenchman  can  be  moved,  under  the  fatal  pressure 
of  intestine  divisions,  to  incline  his  sympathies  to  the  English. 

Henry  V,  King  of  England,  was  not  to  glory  for  long  in 
his  triumph.  He  died  at  Vincennes  on  the  31st  August  1422, 
soon  followed  to  the  tomb  by  poor  Charles  VI,  who  died  in 
his  house  of  St.  Paul  on  the  21st  October  of  the  same  year. 
504 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


The  Virgin 
of  Battles. 


On  his  tomb  Berry  the  Herald-at-arms  proclaimed  the  accession 
of  Henry  “  by  the  grace  of  God,  King  of  France  and  England.” 
The  sovereign  of  this  great  empire,  the  son  of  Henry  V  and 
Catherine  of  France,  was  hardly  eighteen  months  old. 

While  at  St.  Denis,  the  French  King-at-arms  was  pro¬ 
claiming  the  accession  of  the  son  of  Henry  V  ;  at  Bourges 

Charles  VII  was  proclaiming  himself  King  of 
France  :  whence  the  surname  “  King  of  Bourges,” 
which  was  given  to  him  at  the  beginning  of  his 
reign.  The  young  prince  was  in  his  twentieth  year.  It  was 
now  the  turn  of  the  English  to  have  a  minor  on  the  throne. 
The  uncles  of  Henry  VI,  the  Dukes  of  Gloucester  and  Bedford, 
took  the  government  on  themselves  in  the  quality  of  regents 
— Gloucester  at  London  and  Bedford  at  Paris. 

The  affairs  of  the  King  of  Bourges  were  not,  after  all,  in  so 
bad  a  state  as  might  appear.  The  French  found  again  a  king, 
and  we  know  the  force  of  attraction  which  the  royal  person 
exercised  over  them  at  this  time.  Neither  the  Queen  Regent, 
nor  the  lieutenant  of  the  King,  nor  even  the  Dauphin,  could 
replace  him.  English  chroniclers  and  historians  have  recog¬ 
nized  this  clearly  :  “  Assuredly  the  death  of  Charles  brought 
about  an  important  change  in  France,  for  a  great  number 
of  the  Nobility,  who  were  previously  on  the  English  side,  now 
turned  to  the  Dauphin  in  a  common  effort  to  drive  the  English 
from  the  land.” 

The  Superior  of  the  Carmelites  was  handed  over  to  justice 
for  having  said,  on  hearing  of  the  proclamation  of  Henry  VI 
as  King  of  France  and  England  : 

“  No  Englishman  was  ever  King  of  France  or  shall  be.” 

In  Noyon  a  poor  cobbler  went  about  saying  that  “  the 
Dauphin  (Charles  VII)  would  be  master  and  King,  and  that, 
if  he  came  to  Noyon,  the  gates  of  the  town  would  be  opened 
to  him.” 

At  Bourges,  Charles  VII  receives  some  emissaries  from 
Normandy  in  “  disguising  garments  ”  :  they  announce  to  him 
that  if  he  were  to  come  to  the  beautiful  land  of  Normandy  he 
would  be  well  received. 

In  Normandy  the  English  Government  could  not  manage 
to  extricate  itself  from  a  tangled  partisan  warfare  which  showed 

505 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


the  lively  hold  national  sentiment  had  taken  there  in  all  classes 
of  society.  The  English  dominated  the  land  by  their  organized 
forces.  They  were  the  masters  in  the  towns  ;  but  in  the  depths 
of  the  forests  there  lurked  the  indomitable  defenders  of  national 
independence.  At  all  times  of  the  day  and  night  and  every¬ 
where,  at  the  spots  where  they  were  least  expected,  they 
pounced  upon  the  representatives  of  the  English  Government, 
killed  them  when  they  found  them  in  small  bands,  took  from 
the  collectors  their  money  received  from  the  taxes,  stopped 
the  messengers,  and  altogether  impeded  administration.  The 
peasants  were  their  allies  and  hid  them  at  need.  Brave  women 
brought  them  provisions  in  the  depths  of  the  woods.  When 
the  English  managed  to  catch  them  they  buried  these  noble 
patriots  alive  beneath  the  gibbets  on  which  were  hanged  those 
who  had  assisted  them.  They  had  set  dogs  to  hunt  these 
“  outlaws  ”  in  their  sylvan  haunts.  They  had  put  a  price  on 
the  head  of  the  “  brigands,”  as  they  called  the  representatives 
of  the  cause  of  France  :  six  pounds  per  man  brought  alive 
to  the  viscounty.  The  results  of  this  hunting  of  men  are 
found  in  the  accounts  mingled  with  those  of  the  hunting  of 
wolves. 

All  classes  and  conditions  were  represented  in  these  bands  of 
partisans  :  priests  who  had  cast  away  their  frocks  to  defend 
their  country,  traders  who  had  abandoned  their  counters. 
Nobles  and  knights  rubbed  shoulders  with  peasants,  curriers, 
shoemakers,  and  carpenters.  It  was  the  first  and  fruitful 
example  of  the  drawing  together  which  was  to  come  between 
the  country  gentry  and  the  common  people.  One  sees  the 
villagers  following  in  bands  their  lord  who  led  them  in  this 
patriotic  brigandage. 

Some  soldiers  were  discussing  in  an  inn  the  means  of  stamp¬ 
ing  out  this  irregular  army,  when  a  priest  intervened  : 

“  Let  the  English  leave  the  country  and  the  brigands  will 
soon  disappear.” 

Let  us  picture  to  ourselves  the  state  of  France  at  this  begin¬ 
ning  of  the  reign  of  Charles  VII  :  “  The  rural  districts,  that  is 
to  say,  the  unfortified  lands,  the  countryside,  are  turned  into 
the  condition  of  the  sea,  where  each  one  has  just  as  much 
command  as  he  has  power.”  The  English  and  Burgundians 
506 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


dominated  the  great  towns  ;  but  how  many  little  places,  small 
defended  villages,  how  many  castles  and  strongholds  were  in 
the  hands  of  their  adversaries.  In  consequence  of  the  disorder, 
disorganization,  and  want  of  security,  of  the  dilapidation  of  the 
bridges  and  highways,  communications  had  become  immensely 
difficult,  slow  to  the  last  degree,  and  extremely  rare.  Things 
were  going  back  to  the  state  of  stagnation,  isolation,  and  im¬ 
mobility  which  we  described  at  the  beginning  of  this  book. 
Jean  de  Bueil  gives  us  a  lively  picture  of  it  : 

“  In  passing  on  my  way  I  found  myself  in  a  very  desolate 
and  deserted  district,  for  there  had  been  for  a  long  time  war 
there  between  the  inhabitants.  Nevertheless,  there  was  a 
certain  gathering  of  common  people,  as  there  is  often  in  the  open 
country,  and  some  places  inhabited  by  poor  noblemen,  that  is 
to  say,  castles  and  fortresses  of  the  smaller  sort,  poorly  fortified 
and  old  fashioned  ;  among  which  there  were  two  close  to  each 
other  and  like  enough  in  their  poverty  ;  but  so  opposed  were 
they  to  each  other  that  they  had  been  a  long  time  at  war  and 
enmity  for  a  very  small  cause.  For  just  as  through  high  and 
great  disputes  there  come  great  divisions  between  rich  and 
powerful  men,  similarly  between  the  poor  there  arise  brawls 
and  dissensions  for  little  occasions  enough  :  no  one  wishes  to 
lose  his  rights. 

“  Now  it  was  thus  that  in  passing  on  my  way — which  I  had 
entered  upon  without  safe  conduct  to  avoid  danger  from  the 
enemies  of  the  side  to  which  I  adhered — I  arrived  at  one  of 
the  above-mentioned  castles,  which  was  called  Luc  (Château 
l’Hermitage,  canton  de  Pontvallain,  Sarthe),  opposed  to  the 
other  castle  named  Verset  (one  of  the  little  places  in  Maine 
occupied  by  the  English).  Certainly  both  of  them  were  badly 
held  and  very  poorly  built.  The  sentinel’s  lodge  was  very 
exposed  and  open  to  the  wind,  so  that  he  who  kept  watch  was 
not  protected  against  it.  And  similarly  the  gate-keeper  was 
much  exposed  to  the  heat  and  glare  of  summer  and  to  cold  and 
frost  in  winter. 

“  I  stayed  at  the  fortress  of  Luc  because  it  belonged  to  my 
party.” 

Château  l’Hermitage  is  then  occupied  by  Armagnac  soldiers 
whom  Jean  de  Bueil  comes  to  join  ;  Verset  is  garrisoned  by  the 

507 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


English.  There  is  daily  war,  careful,  minute,  and  punctilious, 
between  the  two  fortresses. 

This  was  repeated  throughout  France  at  least  in  all  the 
provinces  in  which  the  English  were  installed.  “  The  war,” 
M.  Pierre  Champion  very  justly  writes,  “  took  on  the  character 
of  an  occupation.  It  assumed  the  aspect  of  a  monotonous 
trench  war.  Not  that  they  dug  out  furrows  in  the  earth,  but 
the  France  of  that  day  was  covered  with  castles  and  fortresses, 
which  were  veritable  redoubts,  commanding  the  passage  of  the 
rivers,  of  the  ravines,  giving  the  prospects  necessary  to  soldiers 
for  a  surprise.  Each  fortified  town  had  its  circle  of  walls. 
When  the  warning  was  given,  the  burgesses  and  the  canons 
themselves  mounted  guard  on  the  ramparts.  Moats  full  of 
water  were  a  serious  obstacle  to  any  one  attempting  an  attack. 
A  few  defenders  sufficed  for  these  places,  which  guarded 
themselves.” 

Here,  then,  are  the  Armagnacs  at  Château  l’Hermitage  and 
the  English  at  Verset.  They  spy  upon  each  other,  try  to  surprise 
each  other,  and  seize  each  other’s  provisions  and  horses.  The 
difficulty  of  communications  which  hampered  the  bringing  of 
fresh  supplies,  reduced  every  one  to  the  most  precarious  and 
wretched  existence. 

“  I  stayed  there  long  enough,”  says  Jean  de  Bueil,  “  awaiting 
the  merchants,  men  or  women,  who  from  time  to  time  brought 
oats  to  the  garrison,  but  it  was  not  every  day.  Their  horses 
went  fasting  most  of  the  time,  through  which  they  were  weak, 
sickly,  and  thin.  And  some  had  lost  their  shoes  and  had  to 
wait  for  the  farrier,  who  was  not  always  there.  And  worse  still, 
they  had  so  few  that  every  time  they  went  on  an  expedition 
against  their  enemies,  or  for  any  journey,  they  took  all  of  them 
and  left  none  behind,  and  yet  there  were  not  enough  ;  but 
often  they  went  two  on  a  horse,  and  the  majority  went  on  foot. 
And  to  cut  the  matter  short,  the  greater  number,  men  as  well 
as  horses,  were  either  blind  or  lame,  and  there  was  none  who 
did  not  bear  signs  of  their  trade.” 

If  the  English  got  possession  of  one  of  these  castles  occupied 
by  a  garrison  faithful  to  Charles  VII  they  treated  their  enemies 
with  the  greatest  harshness.  The  English  took  the  Château 
d’Orsav.  They  led  its  garrison  to  Paris,  “  each  with  a  halter 
508 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


round  his  neck,  tightly  fastened,  coupled  with  one  another  like 
dogs,  coming  on  foot  from  the  said  castle  to  Paris  ;  and  there 
were  about  fifty  of  them,  not  counting  the  women  and  young 
pages.” 

The  aspect  of  the  country  is  described  by  Thomas  Basin. 
He  has  traversed  Champagne,  Brie,  Gâtinais,  Beauvais,  the 
country  round  Chartres,  Maine,  Perche,  Yexin,  and  Valois. 
The  fields  are  abandoned,  rough,  tangled  ;  the  trees  grow  as  in 
virgin  forests.  Cultivation  of  the  land  is  found  only  round 
fortified  towns  and  castles,  over  the  extent  of  ground  which  can 
be  seen  by  the  watchman  posted  at  the  top  of  the  towers. 
When  the  sentinel  discerned  at  a  distance  an  invasion  of  brigands 
or  of  an  enemy,  he  gave  the  alarm  by  the  sound  of  trumpet  or 
bell,  and  for  all  to  take  refuge  with  beasts  and  goods  within  the 
fortified  enclosure.  This  signal  had  become  so  frequent  in 
certain  places  that  on  hearing  it  the  oxen  and  horses  ran  of  their 
own  accord  to  shelter.  44  But,”  says  Thomas  Basin,  44  as  in 
these  provinces  with  extensive  fields,  towns  and  fortresses  are 
rare — some,  too,  of  the  latter  had  been  destroyed  in  the  recent 
fighting — the  land  under  cultivation  round  the  fortified  places 
was  small  in  comparison  with  the  immensity  of  the  waste 
ground,  encumbered  with  briars,  heath,  and  wild  shrubs.”  One 
might  imagine  oneself  at  the  beginnings  of  the  feudal  period. 

When  a  district  commanded  by  a  fortified  town  or  powerful 
castle  chanced  to  be  efficaciously  defended  by  the  soldiers  living 
there,  there  was  seen,  restored  again  quickly  enough,  a  certain 
degree  of  prosperity.  Work  was  organized  in  security.  Jean  de 
Bueil  is  at  Sablé,  of  which  Guillaume  de  Brezé  is  captain. 
Le  Jouvencel  and  his  companions  44  stayed  in  the  town  for  a 
time  and  their  fame  spread  throughout  the  district.  There  was 
talk  only  of  their  feats  in  arms.  And  they  so  kept  the  peace 
in  the  town  and  all  the  surrounding  country  that  in  a  short 
time  the  population  increased  and  goods  became  profitable.” 

On  the  26th  September  1423,  at  Graville  in  Maine,  the 
French,  commanded  by  Jean  d’Harcourt,  gained  a  signal 
success  over  the  English  under  the  command  of  William  Pole  ; 
but  on  the  17th  August  1424  they  were  beaten  once  more  at 
Verneuil,  the  bloodiest  battle  of  the  war.  Once  more  an  army 
much  superior  in  numbers  to  that  of  the  enemy  was  beaten 

509 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


through  the  mistaken  manoeuvring  of  its  leaders.  The  clever 
strategist  Jean  de  Bueil,  who  was  soon  to  be  in  command  of 
the  armies  as  Marshall  of  France,  explains  it  thus  : 

“  The  French  put  a  good  number  of  horsemen  in  front  of 
them,  who  were  thrown  back  against  them,  by  which  they  were 
discomfited.  Foot  soldiers  should  never  put  cavalry  in  front 
of  them,  for  when  the  horsemen  are  thrown  back,  they  often 
charge  their  own  men  with  their  horses’  chests  and  break  their 
ranks  ;  they  should  be  placed  on  the  wings.” 

The  results  of  the  battle  of  Verneuil  was  to  make  the  English 
almost  entirely  masters  of  the  country  north  of  the  Loire.  On 
the  seacoast  there  was  always  victoriously  resisting  the  ad¬ 
mirable  Mont-St. -Michel,  which  a  troop  of  Norman  gentlemen 
defended  indefatigably,  assisted  by  the  humble  burgesses  and 
fishermen  who  constituted  the  little  town  clinging  to  the  sides 
of  the  Mont  ;  and  on  the  frontiers  of  the  Empire,  there  resisted 
another  wave,  quite  inland,  the  castellany  of  Vaucouleurs, 
commanded  by  a  kind  of  condottiere,  pugnacious  and  energetic, 
Robert  de  Baudricourt.  From  this  little  corner  of  the  land, 
faithful  to  the  fleur-de-lis,  salvation  was  to  come. 

But  before  recounting  the  wonderful  epic  of  the  Maid  of 
Domrémy,  let  us  mark  two  facts  which  show  to  what  an  extent 
the  two  parties,  the  Armagnacs  and  the  Burgundians,  the 
aristocratic  and  the  popular  parties,  continued  to  divide  France. 

At  the  news  of  the  disaster  of  Verneuil  the  barons  of 
Auvergne,  of  Bourbonnais,  Guienne,  and  Languedoc  came 
spontaneously  to  offer  their  help  to  Charles  VII  with  the  most 
numerous  show  of  arms  they  had  been  able  to  muster  ;  but 
Le  Mans  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  English  (28th  May  1428) 
under  the  following  circumstances:  “The  common  people,” 
writes  the  Bourgeois  de  Paris ,  “  conceived  so  great  a  hatred  for 
the  Armagnacs  that  they  allowed  the  aforesaid  leaders  (the 
English)  to  enter.  When  they  (the  English)  were  within  they 
began  to  shout,  4  The  town  is  won  !  ’  .  .  .  And  they  fought, 
hand  to  hand,  for  a  very  long  time,  but  in  the  end  the  Ar¬ 
magnacs  were  defeated,  for  the  people  had  such  a  great  hatred 
of  them  for  their  wickedness  that  they  threw  great  stones  down 
upon  them  from  the  windows,  killing  them  and  their  horses, 
and  when  any  of  the  Armagnacs  escaped  on  a  good  horse  or  in 
510 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


any  other  way  he  was  forthwith  killed  by  the  popular  party. 
And  so  great  was  their  prowess,  namely,  of  the  leader  named 
my  Lord  Talbot  and  the  people  of  the  castle  (the  English  who 
were  in  the  castle  of  the  town)  and  the  commune,  that  twelve 
hundred  Armagnacs  remained  dead  on  the  ground  besides  those 
who  were  beheaded  for  having  consented  to  the  entry  of  the 
Armagnacs.” 

Jeanne  the  Deliverer  was  born  on  the  5th  January  1412, 
at  Domrémy,  in  the  castellany  of  Vaucouleurs,  in  the  marches 
of  Lorraine,  within  the  royal  jurisdiction. 

Her  father,  Jacquot  d’Arc  —  pronounced  “  d’Ai  ” — was  a 
native  of  the  village  of  Arc-en-Barrois  (arrondissement  of 
Chaumont).  Jacquot  d’Arc  was  held  in  great  respect  at 
Domrémy.  He  was  dean  (doyen)  of  the  community  and 
commanded  the  watch.  He  possessed  arable  lands,  meadows, 
and  woods,  enough  to  form  a  gaignage ,  that  is  to  say,  a  domain 
which  necessitated  the  use  of  several  horses.  Jacquot  d’Arc 
and  his  eldest  son,  Jacquemin,  commanded  the  fortress  of 
Domrémy,  called  the  44  House  of  the  Isle,”  a  defensive  position, 
rough  and  abrupt,  constructed  at  the  point  of  a  kind  of  penin¬ 
sula  which  the  Meuse  surrounded  in  its  winding  course.  It 
was  a  4  4  refuge  ”  where  man  and  beast  found  shelter  and  whose 
defence  in  those  days  of  alarms  was  directed  by  Jacquot 
d’Arc  and  his  eldest  son.  There  was  collected  there  an  arsenal 
of  weapons  and  armour,  which  they  shared  among  the  peasants 
when  the  alarm  went,  thus  transforming  them  into  a  garrison. 
44  What  days,  and  above  all  what  nights,  must  Jeannette  have 
passed  in  the  open  air,  her  ear  strained  for  the  slightest 
noise,  watching  for  the  approach  of  the  English  from  Montigny 
and  Nogent  or  the  Burgundians  from  Andelot,  Fouvent, 
Vignory,  and  St.  Dizier  ”  (Siméon  Luce). 

In  June  1425  Jeanne  was  in  her  thirteenth  year.  At  mid¬ 
day  in  her  father’s  garden,  which  the  bells  of  the  neighbouring 
church  filled  with  their  clanging,  voices  very  gentle,  very 
sweet,  called  her  as  though  coming  from  the  church.  There 
was  no  one  to  be  seen  in  the  direction  from  which  the  sound 
came.  The  child  was  seized  with  terror.  On  the  following 
days  this  call  was  renewed.  The  voices  were  tuneful  and 
tender  ;  they  were  accompanied  by  a  great  light,  and  a  perfume 

511 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


sweeter  than  that  of  flowers.  The  voices  were  those  of  the 
Archangel  Michael,  the  protector  of  the  kingdom  of  France, 
and  of  the  two  saints,  St.  Catherine  and  St.  Margaret,  whose 
statues  stood  in  the  church  of  Domrémy,  near  the  altar. 

At  Domrémy,  everybody  was  Armagnac,  that  is  to  say, 
attached  to  the  royal  cause,  and  it  was  the  same  in  the  neigh¬ 
bouring  fortress  of  Vaucouleurs  ;  while,  all  round,  the  Bur¬ 
gundians  were  in  power,  and  the  district  was  cut  up  by  the 
English,  who  occupied  many  fortresses. 

At  Vaucouleurs  there  was  in  command,  faithful  to  his  King, 
but  otherwise  without  a  trace  of  sentiment,  a  picturesque 
person,  Robert  de  Baudricourt.  A  brave  soldier,  a  bluff  leader, 
skilful  in  surprises  and  ambushes,  and  not  less  in  the  tricks  of 
diplomacy  and  the  finesse  of  a  man  of  affairs.  The  Duke  of 
Bedford,  Regent  of  France,  was  preparing  an  expedition  to 
clear  from  the  country  the  last  wave  which  had  remained  hostile 
to  the  King  of  England,  at  the  moment  when  these  luminous 
voices,  gliding  through  the  foliage  of  a  little  enclosure  of 
greenery,  were  murmuring  in  the  ears  of  a  girl  of  seventeen  : 

Jeanne,  thou  maiden  well  blessed, 

The  God  of  Heaven  sends  me  to  you  ; 

Fear  nothing, 

Be  wholly  joyful. 

His  will  and  His  pleasure 
Is  that  you  go  to  Orleans, 

Drive  away  the  English, 

And  raise  the  siege. 

Then  it  will  fall  to  you 

To  lead  the  King  to  Reims  for  consecration. 

And  to  the  Lord  of  Baudricourt, 

Go  and  bid  him  lead  you 
Immediately  by  the  shortest  road, 

That  he  is  your  leader, 

And  God  will  guide  you  always. 

(Mistère  du  Siège  d’Orléans.) 


Domrémy  stood  on  a  road  which  formed  the  highway  to 
Italy,  the  Rhone  Valley,  Burgundy,  and  Flanders.  The  mer¬ 
chants  in  those  days  were  also  the  informed  newsbringers.  The 
house  of  Jacques  d’Arc  was  hospitable,  and  Jeanne  heard, 
512 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


through  the  most  various  accounts,  the  details  of  the  events 
which  she  had  so  much  at  heart. 

At  the  beginning  of  May  1428  Jeanne  went  to  her  uncle, 
Durand  Laxart,  who  lived  at  Burey-le-Petit,  near  Vaucouleurs. 
She  succeeded  in  convincing  him  of  the  reality  of  her  mission. 
Accompanied  by  her  uncle,  Laxart,  she  set  out  for  Vaucouleurs 
on  the  13th  May  1428.  She  arrived  there  dressed  in  a  frock  of 
red  wool,  tight  to  the  figure,  and  falling  in  straight  pleats. 

Aged  seventeen,  Jeanne  was  pleasing  with  her  lively  and 
attractive  air.  Her  face  had  a  frank  and  happy  expression. 
She  was  of  medium  height,  with  straight  shoulders,  black  hair, 
and  with  big  black  eyes.  She  had  a  robust,  slightly  rustic 
appearance.  Her  strength,  her  adaptability,  and  endurance  are 
to  be  the  admiration  of  the  soldiery.  All  contemporaries  agree 
as  to  the  beauty  of  her  figure  and  that,  a  little  hard  perhaps, 
of  her  features. 

Jeanne  and  her  uncle,  Laxart,  had  much  difficulty  in  obtain¬ 
ing  an  audience  with  Baudricourt.  In  the  end  they  succeeded, 
thanks  to  two  young  squires,  Bertrand  de  Poulangy  and  Jean 
de  Metz,  who  had  been  charmed  by  the  frank  manner  and 
pleasant  looks  of  the  young  girl.  Baudricourt  was  convinced 
in  his  turn.  On  the  23rd  February  1429  a  little  band  left 
Vaucouleurs  to  go  to  Charles  VII  at  Chinon.  It  included 
Jeanne  d’Arc,  Jean  de  Metz,  and  Bertrand  de  Poulangy,  four 
servants,  a  King’s  messenger,  Colet  de  Vienne,  and  an  archer 
named  Richard. 

The  terrible  defeat  of  the  12th  February  near  Rouvray  St. 
Denis,  known  as  the  “  Battle  of  the  Llerrings,”  seemed  to  have 
given  the  death-blow  to  the  cause  of  the  Valois.  The  battle 
had  taken  its  name  from  the  fact  that  the  French  had  thought 
they  could  attack  victoriously  an  English  convoy  of  provisions 
containing  three  hundred  wagons  laden  with  herrings  :  the 
staple  food  of  the  people  in  the  Middle  Ages,  much  more 
so  than  bread,  at  least  in  the  towns.  Orleans,  the  last 
fortress  on  the  Loire,  was  on  the  point  of  succumbing  to  the 
attacks  of  the  English. 

Jeanne  was  introduced  into  the  presence  of  Charles  VII,  on 
the  8th  March,  at  nightfall.  Nearly  three  hundred  knights 
filled  the  great  hall  of  the  Castle  of  Chinon,  in  which  fifty  torches 

2  k  513 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


shed  their  glittering  light.  Some  brushwood  was  crackling 
under  the  mantel  of  the  high  chimney-piece,  still  preserved. 
Jeanne  advanced  towards  the  King. 

“  Most  noble  Dauphin,  I  have  come  on  the  part  of  God  to 
help  you,  you  and  your  kingdom.” 

Her  sweet,  clear  voice,  her  rustic  beauty  in  the  flower  of 
her  eighteenth  year,  her  movements,  youthful  and  free,  told  in 
her  favour. 

“  King,”  said  the  young  girl  to  him,  “  be  ever  humble  and 
gentle  towards  God  and  He  will  help  you.” 

Charles  VII  was  walking  next  day  on  the  banks  of  the  Loire 
with  his  friends,  when  he  stopped,  surprised  to  see  with  what 
grace  and  courage  the  Maid  from  Vaucouleurs  wielded  a  lance 
on  a  war-horse.  The  young  Duke  of  Alençon  was  seized  with 
an  enthusiasm  for  her  which  never  afterwards  diminished. 

Some  provisions  had  been  collected  at  Blois  for  the  repro¬ 
visioning  of  Orleans.  Jeanne  declared  that  she  was  charged 
to  take  them  into  the  town.  The  King  gave  her  the  rank  of 
war  leader,  chef  de  guerre.  This  expression  has  misled  the  best 
and  most  recent  historians.  It  does  not  mean  at  all  that  Jeanne 
was  to  be  commander-in-chief  of  the  French  army.  The  chef 
de  guerre  had  a  fixed  rôle  in  the  armies  of  the  fifteenth  century. 
His  importance  corresponded  roughly  with  that  of  colonel  in  the 
royal  armies  of  the  eighteenth  century.  He  was  qualified  to 
recruit  a  band  of  men-at-arms  at  will  and  on  his  own  responsi¬ 
bility,  whom  he  dressed  as  he  liked  and  to  whom  he  gave  a 
banner  of  his  own  designing  ;  it  was  his  company  :  in  the 
eighteenth  century  it  would  have  been  his  regiment.  The 
supreme  head  of  the  armies  was  the  King,  and  in  default  of  him, 
the  King’s  Lieutenant,  and  under  his  orders  were  the  Constable 
and  the  Marshalls.  Under  the  direction  of  these  great  leaders 
were  the  chefs  de  guerre ,  each  of  whom  represented  his  company 
and  who  were  very  numerous.  Each  chef  de  guerre  received 
from  him  for  whom  he  fought,  King,  simple  lord,  or  munici¬ 
pality,  an  agreed  sum,  which  enabled  him  to  equip,  feed,  and  pay 
his  men.  Charles  of  Anjou,  the  King’s  Lieutenant,  assembled 
his  officers  in  council  (towards  1425)  : 

“  .  .  .  had  a  great  hall  prepared  in  which  to  hold  a  council 
as  Lieutenant-General,  and  he  sat  on  a  seat  and  all  the  lords 
514 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


and  war  leaders  round  him.  .  .  He  takes  their  advice  and 
concludes  : 

“  It  has  seemed  good  to  all  the  lords,  captains,  and  war 
leaders  here  assembled.  .  .  .” 

Another  passage  of  J ouvencel  will  show  us  these  war  leaders 
in  the  midst  of  their  men. 

It  is  on  the  battlefield  at  the  end  of  the  day.  The  battle 
has  been  fierce  :  “  One  is  tired,  another  weighed  down  by  his 
harness  .  .  .  the  chefs  de  guerre  cannot  speak  any  more  from 
shouting  so  much.  Their  men  do  not  hear  them,  and  if  they 
do,  they  pretend  not  to.  The  leaders  have  not  to  do  with 
individual  men  but  with  the  whole  company.  .  .  .” 

These  two  passages  show  us  clearly  the  rôle  of  the  chefs  de 
guerre ,  on  the  one  hand  in  council,  on  the  other  in  the  heat 
of  action,  each  ordering,  sustaining,  rallying,  and  encouraging 
the  men  of  his  company.  Jeanne  writes  in  her  letter  to 
Henry  VI  : 

“lama  chef  de  guerre.  .  .  .” 

This,  then,  is  quite  definitely  her  rôle  in  the  army.  It  is  a 
great  mistake  to  attribute  to  her  the  command  of  the  whole 
French  army  :  an  error  which  falsifies  the  character  of  her  action 
and  prevents  us  understanding  it.  Let  us  add  that  each  of 
these  chefs  de  guerre  had  in  council  and  the  conduct  of  affairs  an 
importance  varying  with  his  personal  valour  and  his  reputation. 
After  Orleans  and  Patay,  Jeanne’s  importance  as  chef  de  guerre 
became  very  great  ;  but  officially  she  never  had  other  functions 
than  those  we  have  just  indicated. 

At  the  moment  of  beginning  the  story  of  the  Battle  of  Patay 
the  author  of  the  Chronique  Martiniane  writes  :  “  Those  who 
led  the  vanguard,  the  Constable  and  the  Marshall  de  Boussac, 
La  Hire,  Pothon  (Xaintrailles),  and  Anthoine  de  Chabannes  and 
Jeanne  the  Maid  and  other  captains  ...”  Behold,  then, 
Jeanne  d’Arc  very  exactly  placed  among  the  most  famous 
chefs  de  guerre  of  the  time,  La  Hire,  Xantrailles,  and  Chabannes 
under  the  orders  of  the  Constable  and  a  Marshall  of  France. 

The  company,  of  which  Jeanne  was  leader,  was  of  little 
importance  in  the  beginning,  at  the  moment  of  the  march  on 
Orleans.  It  included  only  three  lances,  which  made  with  the 
squires  and  servants  fifteen  men.  Later  her  company  will  grow 

515 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


in  numbers.  In  May  1430,  when  she  enters  Compiègne,  Jeanne 
will  have  under  her  banner  three  or  four  hundred  men,  of  whom 
one  hundred  will  be  cavalry,  sixty-eight  archers  and  bowmen, 
and  two  trumpeters.  Her  lieutenant  was  an  Italian,  Bartolom¬ 
meo  Baretta.  There  were  attached  to  the  company  a  chaplain 
and  a  secretary  for  accounts  and  writing.  And  as  one  of  her 
most  recent  historians,  M.  Jules  d’Auriac,  well  says,  “It  is 
pleasant  to  imagine  Jeanne  d’Arc,  aged  eighteen,  paying  her 
men,  looking  after  their  sustenance,  verifying  the  good  condition 
of  their  weapons  and  the  solidity  of  their  armour.  .  .  .”  Here 
Jeanne  is  in  her  right  place.  There  is  none  finer  nor  of  which 
we  French,  so  proud  of  her,  could  be  prouder. 

Jeanne  was  the  virgin  of  battles,  a  fighter  in  her  very  soul. 
She  had  the  boldness,  the  courage,  the  endurance,  and  the 
energy  of  the  warrior.  She  remained  on  horseback,  in  her 
white  armour  with  its  plates  of  steel,  whole  days  and  nights. 
After  a  year  and  a  half  of  incessant  riding  her  beautiful  body 
was  deformed  by  it.  She  had  the  bluff  manner  of  the  soldier 
and  used  language  fit  for  a  trooper.  The  judges  at  Rouen 
reproached  her  with  these  oaths.  She  rode  marvellously, 
“  riding  black  and  high-mettled  horses  ”  ( The  Black  Book  of 
La  Rochelle). 

The  “  Burgundian  ”  Monstrelet  also  will  say  :  “  She  was 
bold  in  riding  horses,  and  in  leading  them  to  drink,  and  in 
performing  the  feats  of  soldiers.”  She  hardly  liked  to  be  out 
of  the  company  of  the  soldiers  ;  she  liked  their  straight¬ 
forwardness,  their  plain  dealing,  their  loyalty.  She  could  not 
bear  lawyers  and  doctors.  “  She  was  simple  in  everything,” 
one  of  the  witnesses  in  the  process  of  rehabilitation  will  say, 
“  except  in  matters  of  warfare,  in  which  she  was  among  the 
most  expert.”  “  She  was  very  clever,”  the  Duke  of  Alençon 
will  say,  “  in  handling  a  lance,  gathering  together  an  army, 
arranging  the  order  of  battles,  or  disposing  the  artillery.”  All 
the  witnesses  called  on  to  speak  were  of  accord  on  this  subject. 
Let  us  quote  what  Monstrelet,  of  the  opposing  camp,  said 
about  it  : 

“  And  always  Jeanne  the  Maid  was  in  the  front  with  her 
standard.  And  in  all  the  marches  there  was  no  greater  fame 
or  reputation  than  there  was  of  her  and  of  no  other  soldier.” 
516 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


To  which  we  must  add  her  vanity,  one  of  the  charming 
traits  of  her  character  and  which  does  not  belittle  her,  but 
the  contrary.  The  most  acceptable  present  which  could  be 
given  to  her  consisted  of  fine  horses,  and  beautiful  weapons 
and  armour,  and  then  of  rich  stuffs  and  precious  adornments. 

At  Domrémy  Jeanne  wore  a  dress  of  red  wool.  She  arrived 
at  Chinon,  dressed  as  a  man  in  dark  grey  cloth.  “  She  had 
a  black  doublet  with  hose  attached,  a  short  frock  of  dark  grey 
material,  her  black  hair  cut  straight  round,  with  a  black  hat 
on  her  head.”  Later  she  puts  on  white  armour  with  plates 
of  steel,  capes  of  cloth  of  gold,  red  capes,  long  cloaks  of  crimson 
velvet  strewn  with  nettles  of  the  natural  colour,  the  arms  of 
Charles  of  Orleans,  stuffs  of  purple  silk,  beaten  with  gold  and 
silver.  When  she  was  not  in  armour  she  dressed  as  a  horse 
soldier  with  “  shoes  laced  behind  the  foot,  tight-fitting  doublet 
and  hose,  and  a  small  hat  on  her  head,  and  wearing  magnificent 
clothes  of  cloth  of  gold  and  silk  well  trimmed  with  fur 
(Chronique  des  Cordeliers). 

The  Chancellor  of  France,  Regnauld  de  Chartres,  Archbishop 
of  Reims,  will  reproach  her  angrily  for  her  vanity  and  having 
spent  so  much  money  on  her  toilet.  Moreover,  will  not  her 
beautiful  golden  cape,  which  she  had  thrown  over  her  armour, 
contribute  to  her  capture  under  the  walls  of  Compiègne  ? 
The  Burgundians  will  seize  her  by  the  lappets  of  her  cape  to 
make  her  fall  from  her  horse. 

On  the  29th  April  1429,  Jeanne  appeared  in  sight  of  Orleans, 
followed  by  the  royal  army.  The  next  day  the  town  was 
revictualled.  On  the  4th  May  the  fortress  of  St.  Loup,  which 
the  English  had  built  on  the  banks  of  the  river,  was  taken  at 
the  first  attack.  The  redoubtable  girdle  of  wood  and  stone, 
with  which  seven  months  of  incessant  labour  had  encircled 
the  town,  was  broken  through.  The  bastille  St.  Jean  le  Blanc, 
full  of  English,  was  taken  on  the  6tli  May.  Amidst  the  arrows, 
bricks,  and  stones  which  the  enemy  rained  down,  Jeanne  cried 
to  her  men,  waving  her  banner,  “  In  the  name  of  God  !  be 
brave  !  Forward  !”  It  was  then  the  turn  of  the  bastille 
of  the  Augustinians  and  the  Fort  of  the  Tourelles. 

The  English,  who  had  received  Jeanne  with  gross  insults, 
are  filled  with  terror.  “  I  have  never  heard  of  such  a  one,” 

517 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


cries  Suffolk,  their  leader,  44  unless  it  were  a  devil  from  hell.” 
The  Tourelles  were  taken  on  the  7th  May.  Grievously  wounded 
in  the  shoulder  towards  the  middle  of  the  day,  Jeanne  had 
eaten  nothing  since  morning  ;  she  had  sustained  all  the  effort  of 
the  attack  in  her  iron  armour,  and  the  evening  found  her  still 
courageous,  active,  smiling.  From  nightfall  to  dawn  the 
belfries  of  Orleans  filled  the  air  with  songs  of  victory  ;  bonfires 
were  lighted  at  the  cross-roads  ;  streets  and  lanes  repeated  in 
sonorous  echo,  44  Noël  !  Noël  !  ”  while  horns  and  trumpets 
sounded  triumphal  marches.  And  on  the  next  day,  the  8th 
May  1429,  the  English  decamped. 

In  the  year  fourteen  hundred  and  twenty-nine 
The  sun  again  began  to  shine, 

says  Christine  de  Pisan  in  her  fine  language. 

Such  was  the  panic  spread  among  the  44  red  crosses  ”  that 
Bedford  sent  letters  to  the  leaders  settled  in  the  French  ports 
to  order  them  to  arrest  the  deserters  who  flocked  there  ask¬ 
ing  for  boats  to  recross  the  Channel,  while  in  England  it  was 
impossible  to  ship  the  soldiers  destined  for  the  French  War. 

The  towns  are  taken,  one  after  another,  from  the  English  : 
Jargeau,  Meung-sur-Loire,  Beaugency. 

The  battle  of  Patay  takes  place  on  the  18th  June  (1429). 
The  English,  under  the  most  famous  captains,  Talbot,  Fastolf, 
Bamston,  and  Scales,  were  installed  behind  the  hedges  and 
bushes,  where  they  hoped  to  find  a  line  of  defence.  The  French 
army  was  commanded  by  the  Duke  of  Alençon,  the  lieutenant 
of  the  King.  When  they  asked  Jeanne  her  opinion  on  the 
battle  to  be  fought  she  replied  : 

44  Fall  upon  the  English  and  strike  boldly  :  they  will  take 
flight.” 

And  that  was  what  happened.  The  illustrious  John  Talbot 
was  among  the  prisoners.  He  was  called  44  England’s  shield.” 
He  bore  the  title  of  44  Marshall  of  France.”  John  Fastolf 
fled.  The  English  made  a  scapegoat  of  him,  and  we  know 
the  ridiculous  and  burlesque  silhouette  which  Shakespeare 
has  traced  of  him. 

After  the  battle  of  Patay,  Jeanne  resumed  with  increased 
energy  the  plan  of  the  march  upon  Reims,  where  he  who  was 
still  called  the  Dauphin  was  to  be  crowned.  Historians  have 
518 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


not  all  realized  the  justice  of  the  Maid’s  views.  It  was  certain 
that  from  the  day  that  a  unity  of  sentiment  should  form  round 
Charles  VII,  the  English  would  no  longer  hold  in  France.  One 
must  think  of  the  prestige  afforded  by  the  anointing  at  Reims. 
The  action  would  rally  those  who  hesitated  and  rouse  the 
indifferent.  Jeanne,  with  her  clear  brain,  had  realized  this. 
The  States-General  of  1484  will  recall  it  in  precise  terms  : 
44  Before  the  time  that  King  Charles  VII  was  anointed  and 
crowned,  many  inconveniences  happened  in  the  realm,  for  the 
majority  of  the  people  before  the  aforesaid  consecration  were 
unwilling  to  obey  him,  and  the  enemy  overwhelmed  the  country, 
and  there  was  no  justice,  only  pillage  and  oppression,  and  as 
soon  as  he  was  crowned  he  never  ceased  to  prosper  and  be 
victorious  over  his  enemies.” 

The  consecration  of  Charles  VII  at  Reims  will  strike  a  mortal 
blow  at  the  English  cause  in  France.  They  made  their  way 
victoriously  to  the  town  across  territory  still  subject  to  the 
laws  of  the  enemy.  The  ceremony  took  place  on  the  17th 
July.  The  Maid  prayed  beside  the  King,  near  the  altar. 
Beside  her  a  monk  held  her  banner.  The  crowd  filled  the  nave 
with  cries  of  44  Noël  !  Noël  !  ”  Jeanne  threw  herself  at  the  feet  of 
the  prince,  transported  with  joy.  She  said  to  him,  embracing 
his  knees,  44  Noble  King,  now  is  the  will  of  God  fulfilled, 
that  you  should  come  to  Reims  to  receive  your  due  consecration, 
showing  that  you  are  the  true  King.” 

44  And  a  great  joy,”  says  a  spectator,  44  came  to  those  who 
saw  her  thus,  and  many  wept.” 

Truth  to  tell,  Jeanne’s  rôle  was  now  finished.  She  felt 
it  to  be  so.  She  wished  to  return  to  her  peaceful  village  and 
her  parents,  but  she  could  not  make  up  her  mind  to  it.  She 
loved  war  too  much,  the  sonorous  clamour  and  the  emotions  of 
battles.  She  could  not  bring  herself  to  leave  her  dear  soldiers, 
to  give  up  the  broad  outlook,  the  fine  feats  of  the  sword.  Slie 
will  be  found  at  the  head  of  the  party  around  Charles  VII,  which 
will  pronounce  in  favour  of  war  to  the  death,  without  truce  or 
treaty,  until  the  English  should  be  driven  out  of  France  ;  she 
wras  followed  by  the  Duke  of  Alençon,  Duke  René  de  Bar, 
Dunois,  and  all  the  chefs  de  guerre ,  men  like  La  Hire,  Chabannes, 
and  Xaintrailles.  The  opposite  party  formed  of  those  who 

519 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


would  be  called  nowadays  the  44  Pacifists,”  and  who  wished 
to  negotiate  with  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  or  with  the  English 
King  himself,  was  headed  by  the  able  Chancellor  of  France, 
Regnauld  de  Chartres,  Archbishop  of  Reims,  by  the  King’s 
favourites  La  Trémoille  and  Gaucourt,  and  by  the  Count  of 
Clermont. 

“  We  will  have  peace  only  at  the  point  of  the  lance,”  said 
Jeanne. 

44  At  the  point  of  the  pen,”  said  the  Chancellor. 

Charles  VII  was  inclined  by  temperament  towards  the  ideas 
of  his  Chancellor.  These  divergences  will  increase  as  time 
goes  on.  They  will  cause  the  check  of  the  attack  on  Paris 
(8th  September  1429),  in  which  Jeanne  did  not  receive  support, 
and  the  retreat  on  the  Loire.  Charles  VII  had  left  Com- 
piègne  to  go  to  the  central  provinces.  He  had  just  concluded 
with  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  a  truce  of  four  months,  prolonged 
soon  after.  The  treaty  stipulated  that  the  Burgundians  should 
have  the  keeping  of  Paris. 

Incapable  of  conforming  to  the  exigencies  of  a  policy  with 
which  a  nature  like  hers,  all  faith  and  action,  could  not  har¬ 
monize,  Jeanne  was  deeply  grieved  at  being  dragged  inactive 
from  Gen-sur-Loire  to  Selles  in  Berry,  then  to  Bourges,  to 
Montargis,  Loches,  Jargeau,  Issoudun,  and  finally  to  the  fine 
castle  of  Mehun-sur-Yèvre.  Certainly  the  King  gave  her  as 
much  money  as  she  wanted,  the  thoroughbred  horses  she  loved 
to  ride,  the  fine  dresses,  the  sumptuous  fabrics  in  which  she 
loved  to  dress.  The  King  ennobled  her,  together  with  her 
father,  her  brothers,  and  all  her  family  ;  but  all  this  brilliance  did 
not  stifle  her  44  voices,”  which  summoned  her  to  new  battles. 
Yielding  to  her  entreaties,  at  the  end  of  October  1429,  Charles 
VII  at  last  authorized  Jeanne  d’Arc,  chef  de  guerre ,  to  depart 
with  her  company,  effectively  reinforced,  to  the  4  4  conquest  ”  of 
various  fortresses  which  the  Burgundians  still  possessed  in  the 
region  of  the  Loire.  She  began  by  going  to  lay  siege  to  St. 
Pierre-le-Moutier.  Here,  again,. a  characteristic  incident  takes 
place. 

The  assailants  were  repulsed  in  a  first  attack.  The  faithful 
D’Aulon,  an  old  squire  in  the  Maid’s  suite,  never  ceased  to  watch 
over  her.  He  saw  her  alone  on  the  ramparts.  Barely  a  few 

520 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


soldiers,  who  were  particularly  devoted,  remained  near  her. 
Spurring  his  horse,  D’Aulon  joins  her  and  begs  her  to  retire  ; 
but  Jeanne,  raising  the  visor  of  her  helmet,  says  : 

44 1  am  not  alone  ”■ — and  with  her  eyes  fixed  with  an  inspired 
look  on  the  crest  of  the  ramparts,  of  which  she  felt  herself  already 
mistress — 44 1  have  still  in  my  company  fifty  thousand  of  my 
people,  and  I  will  not  depart  until  I  have  taken  the  town.  ...” 

Jean  d’Aulon  looked  round  in  the  greatest  astonishment. 

44  Whatever  she  might  tell  me,”  he  declared  simply,  44  she 
had  no  more  than  four  or  five  men.” 

And  as  D’Aulon  insisted,  Jeanne’s  only  answer  was  to  make 
him  bring  wattles  and  shelters,  faggots  and  ladders,  for  the 
escalade  of  the  ramparts. 

44  In  God’s  name,  to  the  attack  !  ”  cried  the  young  girl  ; 
44  the  town  is  ours  !  ” 

44  And  the  town  was  taken,”  concluded  the  faithful  squire, 
more  and  more  bewildered. 

On  the  28th  March  1430,  Jeanne  was  with  the  King  at 
Sully-sur-Loire.  She  was  tired  of  the  incessant  discussions 
with  him  and  his  councillors,  44  discontented,”  says  Perceval 
de  Cagny,  44  with  the  manner  in  which  he  was  working  for 
the  recovery  of  the  kingdom.”  She  had  assembled  the  men 
of  her  company  and  completed  in  an  unostentatious  manner 
the  preparations  necessary  for  her  plans.  Suddenly,  44  without 
taking  leave,”  she  slipped  away  with  her  troops  towards  Lagny- 
sur-Marne,  where  she  knew  that  44  there  was  good  fighting 
against  the  English.”  We  touch  here  on  one  of  the  most  im¬ 
portant  moments  of  her  life.  Let  us  picture  Jeanne  in  her 
relations  with  the  King.  There  were  certainly  lively,  even 
violent,  disputes  between  them.  44  She  would  not  listen  to 
advice,  but  did  everything  as  she  liked,”  Regnauld  de  Chartres 
will  say.  When  she  was  opposed  to  the  ministers  and  friends 
of  Charles  VII,  she  said  : 

44  You  have  been  at  your  council,  I  have  been  at  mine.” 

Her  council  was  her  voices,  the  voice  of  Heaven,  the  voice  of 
God.  It  is  no  detriment  to  the  sublime  heroine  to  say  that,  at 
this  time  of  her  life,  in  the  councils  of  Charles  VII  in  which  she 
sat  as  a  chef  de  guerre ,  she  must  have  been  unbearable.  How 
can  one  discuss  things  with  a  young  person  who  speaks  all  the 

521 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


time  in  the  name  of  the  good  God.  Regnauld  of  Chartres, 
without  any  doubt,  spoke  the  truth  when  he  claimed  that  she 
no  longer  listened  to  reason. 

And  we  can  understand  the  feelings  of  Charles  VII  after  this 
last  escapade.  Regardless  of  the  King’s  orders,  of  the  treaties 
concluded,  and  which  she  would — if  she  had  been  acting  with 
the  approval  of  the  King — have  been  openly  violating,  she  re¬ 
turned  to  the  banks  of  the  Seine  and  the  Oise  to  give,  not  only 
to  the  English  but  also  to  the  Burgundians,  “  good  buffets  and 
blows.”  These  are  her  expressions.  What  monarch  would 
have  tolerated  such  behaviour  in  a  leader  under  his  orders 
and  fighting  in  his  pay  and  in  his  name  ? 

“  Let  her  go  and  be  hanged  !  ”  Charles  VII  may  have  said 
with  an  impulse  of  anger,  quite  justifiable.  And  Regnauld  de 
Chartres  and  La  Trémoille  felt  a  certain  sense  of  relief  :  “  Ugh  !  ” 
At  the  head  of  her  company  Jeanne  marched  to  the  relief  of 
Lagny. 

Her  company  was  composed  of  the  most  curious  elements. 
The  Italian  Baretta  is  always  its  lieutenant,  which  means  that 
he  commands  it  in  the  absence  of  Jeanne  d’Arc.  There  are 
found  in  it  also  some  Italians,  some  Scotchmen,  and  naturally 
some  French.  Some  of  the  most  ruthless  and  grimmest  warriors 
of  the  period  had  joined  it — highwaymen  turned  soldiers,  the 
two  Potons,  namely,  Poton  de  Xaintrailles  and  Poton  the 
Burgundian,  Ambroise  de  Loré,  Jean  Foucaut,  Jacques  de 
Chabannes,  Rigaud  de  Fontaines,  Geoffroi  de  St.  Belin,  rough 
fellows,  knowing  no  other  trade,  honour  or  joy,  source  of  profit 
or  means  of  existence,  but  ambushes,  escalades,  and  the  sword. 
Some  of  them,  St.  Belin,  Chabannes,  and  Xaintrailles,  are  to 
figure,  after  the  Peace  of  Arras,  among  the  captains  of  the 
terrible  écorcheurs  (flayers). 

The  troop  turned  towards  Lagny.  On  the  way  they  met, 
followed  by  his  men,  a  famous  Burgundian  chef  de  guerre, 
Franquet  d’ Arras,  a  redoubtable  veteran,  half  brigand,  half 
soldier.  Jeanne  attacked,  conquered  him  and  took  him 
prisoner  ;  and  then  he  had  his  head  cut  off.  This  battle,  of  the 
month  of  March  1430,  has  not  been  sufficiently  noticed.  Here 
Jeanne  commanded  her  little  army  efficiently.  A  chef  de  guerre 
herself,  she  commanded  her  company  in  this  duel  with  a  chef  de 
522 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


guerre  of  the  opposite  side,  an  experienced  condottiere,  and  won 
a  complete  victory  over  him. 

The  first  weeks  of  May  were  spent  in  various  skirmishes  in 
the  Ile-de-France  and  Valois.  Jeanne  was  at  Crépy  when  she 
heard  that  the  army  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  had  come  to  lay 
siege  to  Compiègne.  Philip  the  Good  claimed  that  this  fortress 
should  be  delivered  to  him  according  to  the  truce  concluded  with 
Charles  VII.  About  midnight  she  mounted  on  horseback  and, 
followed  by  her  company — 300  or  400  men — rode  till  dawn. 
In  the  morning  of  the  14th  May  she  entered  Compiègne.  Now 
you  must  know  that  the  municipality  of  Compiègne  had  received 
from  Charles  VII  the  order  to  open  the  gates  of  the  town  to  the 
Duke  of  Burgundy  ;  but  they  had  obstinately  refused.  It 
must  be  remembered  too  that  Charles  VII  and  his  advisers 
were  hoping,  following  on  the  truce  with  the  Burgundians,  to 
arrive  at  a  general  and  definitive  agreement.  New  conferences 
had  been  decided  upon  ;  but  Philip  the  Good  broke  off  the 
negotiations,  and  precisely  because  Compiègne  was  not  put 
into  his  hands.  The  municipality,  supported  by  a  harsh  and 
cruel  captain,  Guillaume  de  Flavy,  who  commanded  the 
fortress,  continued  to  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  all  the  injunctions  of 
Charles  VII,  of  the  Count  of  Clermont,  and  Regnauld  de  Chartres. 
And  now  Jeanne  has  come  to  support  him  in  his  resistance. 

The  unfortunate  sortie  in  which  the  Maid,  the  victim  of  her 
own  boldness,  was  captured  by  the  Burgundians,  takes  place 
on  the  23rd  May  1430.  Just  as  the  brave  child  was  always  seen 
in  the  forefront  when  the  charge  was  sounded,  she  wanted  to 
remain  last  to  cover  the  retreat  of  her  company.  It  is  a  Bur¬ 
gundian  writer,  and  one  who  was  on  the  scene,  Monstrelet,  who 
will  show  us  the  young  chef  de  guerre  in  the  last  moments  of  her 
admirable  military  career  : 

“These  French,  seeing  their  enemies  increasing  in  great 
numbers,  retired  in  front  of  the  town,  the  Maid  always  with  them 
at  the  back,  making  great  efforts  to  support  her  men  and  lead 
them  off  without  loss.”  She  was  the  vigilant  leader  up  to  the 
last  moment,  and  even  when  her  life  was  in  peril,  thinking  only 
of  the  most  favourable  way  of  retreat  for  her  soldiers.  Thus, 
shouting,  fighting,  jostling  one  another,  French,  English,  and 
Burgundians  arrived  at  the  head  of  the  bridge  over  the  town 

523 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


moat.  Guillaume  de  Flavy,  who  was  in  command  of  Com- 
piègne,  saw  the  fortress  threatened  by  the  tide  of  enemies — more 
than  two  thousand  men — says  Monstrelet.  He  ordered  the 
drawbridge  to  be  raised.  Jeanne  was  lost. 

A  human  clutch  grasps  the  caparison  of  her  horse,  pulls 
the  beast  by  the  bridle,  pulls  Jeanne  herself  by  the  lappets 
of  her  cape  of  gold.  She  was  defending  herself  with  great  sword- 
strokes  when  a  Picard  archer,  climbing  on  her  horse’s  croup, 
seized  her  round  the  body  and  rolled  with  her  on  the  trampled 
grass.  The  prisoner  was  conducted  to  the  quarters  of  the 
Burgundian  leader,  Jean  de  Luxemburg.  Jean  de  Luxemburg 
sold  her  to  the  English. 

There  followed  captivity  and  her  trial  at  Rouen,  the  eternal 
shame  of  those  who  were  consumed  with  fury  against  the 
sublime  child.  The  University  of  Paris  obstinately  dishonoured 
itself  in  the  matter,  and  it  required  some  centuries  to  recover 
from  the  opprobrium  which  it  brought  upon  itself.  There 
could  be  nothing  finer  than  the  description  of  the  process  of 
condemnation.  It  is  the  highest  epic,  the  most  touching 
drama.  Beside  the  replies  of  Jeanne  to  her  judges,  what 
are  the  verses  of  Homer  or  the  tragedies  of  Shakespeare  ? 
There  is  nothing  in  the  literature  of  all  time,  except  one  work 
alone,  to  compare  with  these  interrogations  of  a  country 
child  morally  tortured  by  prelates  and  theologians,  and  that 
is  the  Gospels.  The  same  spirit  inspires  both,  the  genius  of 
the  people — open,  candid,  intelligent,  simple,  and  honest  in 
face  of  the  Pharisees. 

On  the  29th  May  1431,  in  the  chapel  of  the  old  castle  of 
Rouen,  Jeanne,  the  good  Maid  of  Lorraine,  was  declared  by 
Churchmen  to  be  a  relapsed  heretic.  On  the  morning  of  the 
next  day,  Wednesday,  30th  May,  the  Dominican  Martin  Ladvenic 
came  to  inform  her  that  she  would  be  burned.  At  this  moment 
the  Maid  shuddered  with  anguish.  “  My  body,  clean  and  whole, 
which  has  never  been  corrupted,  will  be  burned  and  reduced 
to  ashes.  I  call  God,  the  great  Judge,  to  witness  the  wrongs 
and  injuries  which  are  done  to  me  !  ” 

She  asked  to  be  dressed,  to  go  to  her  execution,  in  a  long 
chemise.  The  stake  had  been  erected  at  Rouen  in  the  old 
market-place.  An  inscription  was  fastened  to  it  bearing  these 
524 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


words  :  “  Jeanne  who  had  herself  called  the  Maid,  a  liar, 

dangerous,  an  abuser  of  the  people,  sorceress,  superstitious, 
a  blasphemer  of  God,  presumptuous,  causing  injury  to  the 
faith  of  Jesus  Christ,  a  boaster,  an  idolatress,  cruel,  dissolute, 
an  invoker  of  devils,  an  apostate,  schismatic  and  heretic.” 

In  her  long  chemise  she  advanced  on  the  condemned 
cart,  a  pointed  paper  mitre  on  her  head  bearing  the  in¬ 
scription  : 

“  Heretic,  relapsed,  apostate,  idolatress.” 

They  preached  her  yet  another  sermon  in  the  old  market¬ 
place. 

It  is  impossible  to  imagine  the  number  of  sermons  which 
the  Churchmen,  who  sent  her  to  her  doom,  preached  to  this 
poor  child,  in  her  last  days.  Then  the  horrible  Cauchon — a 
very  appropriate  name  for  this  person,  but  with  a  fault  of 
spelling  ( cochon ,  pig) — read  the  sentence.  Some  of  the  English 
found  the  ceremony  too  long  drawn  out.  The  prelates  were 
growing  weary.  The  English  cried  to  the  Bishop  of  Beauvais, 
“  Are  you  going  to  make  us  dine  here  ?  ”  Then  the  Churchmen 
who  had  given  Jeanne  to  death  drew  back.  The  executioner 
set  fire  to  the  wood.  Jeanne  asked  for  a  cross.  An  English 
soldier  made  one  for  her  from  two  bits  of  wood,  which  he  tied 
together  :  Jeanne  took  it  and  pressed  it  against  her  heart. 

The  majority  of  the  spectators  wept,  overcome  by  the 
pious  courage  of  the  martyr,  and  the  very  English  burst  into 
sobs.  Some  of  these  executioners  shuddered  with  remorse. 
The  flames  rose  round  the  Maid,  surrounding  her  with  a  glory 
more  radiant  than  that  of  the  saints,  and  the  name  of  Jesus, 
which  she  repeated  confidently,  still  fluttered  on  her  lips  at 
the  moment  when  she  left  a  world  too  wicked  and  too  stupid 
for  her  ideal  beauty. 

The  capture  of  Jeanne  d’Arc  had  not  brought  luck  to  the 
Anglo-Burgundians  before  Compiègne.  They  had  to  raise  the 

siege  (28th  October  1430),  abandoning  material 
Charles  the  and  artiflery,  “  which  was  the  thing  they  felt 
Victorious.  and  regretted  most>»  Xhis  check,  inflicted  on 

the  armies  of  Henry  VI  and  Philip  the  Good,  produced  a  great 
sensation  from  Noyon  to  Beauvais  and  from  Soissons  to  Reims. 
On  all  sides  the  Anglo-Burgundians  are  tracked  down  and 

525 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


driven  from  their  haunts.  Indeed,  from  this  moment  the 
English  cause  seems  lost  in  France.  The  energy  and  courage 
of  the  regent,  John  of  Lancaster,  Duke  of  Bedford,  alone 
prolonged  their  power. 

We  come  now  to  the  Treaty  of  Arras,  in  which  the  recon¬ 
ciliation  of  the  Houses  of  France  and  Burgundy  will  be  sealed. 
In  the  matter  of  this  reconciliation  so  many  hands  and  so 
many  hearts  had  busied  themselves — Jeanne  d’Arc,  Colette 
de  Corbie,  and  even  the  Fathers  of  the  Council  of  Basle. 
Jouvenel  des  Ursins  rightly  said  : 

“  According  to  my  poor  opinion,  I  think  disputes  should 
be  more  widely  condemned  as  being  the  cause  of  the  kingdom’s 
ruin.” 

Olivier  de  la  Marche  has  noted  in  touching  terms  the  reasons 
which  determined  Philip  the  Good  to  appease  his  resentment 
at  the  foot  of  the  French  throne  : 

“  And  on  the  part  of  the  good  Duke  Philip  it  seems  that 
what  made  him  give  in  easily  was  his  regard  for  the  salvation 
of  the  realm  of  France,  for  the  noble  blood  from  which  he  had 
sprung  and  which  ran  in  his  veins,  and  for  the  great  benefits 
which  he  had  received  through  his  predecessors  from  the  royal 
House.  These  three  things,  which  are  all  one,  made  him  forget 
the  offence  (the  assassination  of  his  father,  John  the  Fearless). 

“  Secondly,  the  scanty  affinity  and  liking  he  had  for  the 
English  ;  and  thirdly,  his  honour  and  virtue,  for  always 
throughout  his  life,  however  much  offended,  irritated,  or  piqued 
he  might  be  on  various  occasions,  he  stretched  out  a  hand 
efficiently  and  powerfully  to  support,  maintain,  and  protect 
the  royal  Majesty  of  France,  and  lived  and  died  noble  and 
wholly  French  in  blood,  heart,  and  will.” 

The  people  of  Arras,  seeing  the  friendship  so  marvellously 
established  between  the  two  princes,  Charles  VII  and  Philip 
the  Good,  wept  for  joy  at  it.  Dances  and  songs  were  organized 
spontaneously  in  the  streets  ;  but  in  England  the  consternation 
was  so  great  that  it  gave  rise  to  disturbances  in  various  direc¬ 
tions.  Historians  say  that  the  illustrious  Duke  of  Bedford 
died  of  grief  from  it  (13th  September  1435).  Everywhere  in 
France  the  English  are  outflanked.  On  the  13th  April  1436 
the  Constable  de  Richemond  entered  Paris,  and  the  University 
526 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


of  Paris,  with  a  complete  change  from  its  attitude  in  the  trial 
of  Jeanne  d’Arc,  humbly  begged  Charles  VII  to  return  to  his 
good  town.  In  the  district  of  Caux  and  other  places  in  Nor¬ 
mandy  the  English  had  had  the  idea  of  arming  the  peasants  : 
these  arms  were  turned  against  them. 

The  French,  under  the  sting  of  resentment,  in  thinking  of 
all  that  the  English  had  made  them  suffer,  and  for  so  long, 
went  sometimes  beyond  bounds  in  their  vengeance  :  “  On 
the  25th  day  of  September  1441  the  men-at-arms  led  out  the 
prisoners  (English)  whom  they  had  brought  to  Paris  after  the 
taking  of  Pontoise  to  their  fortresses,  in  a  very  pitiful  con¬ 
dition,  for  they  led  them  forth  to  the  bread  of  sorrow,  coupled 
two  and  two  with  very  strong  halters,  just  as  dogs  are  led  to 
the  chase,  themselves  mounted  on  great  horses,  which  went 
very  swiftly  ;  and  the  prisoners  were  without  cloaks  and  bare¬ 
headed,  each  clothed  in  a  wretched  rag,  all  without  hose,  and 
the  greater  number  without  shoes  ;  in  short,  everything  had 
been  taken  from  them,  even  to  the  breeches  ;  .  .  .  and  all  who 
could  not  pay  ransom  they  led  to  the  Grève,  near  the  Port-au- 
Foin,  and  they  tied  their  hands  and  feet,  and  there  they  killed 
them  in  sight  of  all  the  people.  .  .  .” 

Thomas  Basin  has  shown  admirably  how,  after  the  Treaty  of 
Arras,  the  divisions  between  Frenchmen  having  been  appeased, 
the  Englishman  became  to  all  the  common  enemy.  “  The 
French  and  Normans,  who  were  still  under  the  English  domina¬ 
tion,  burned  with  a  more  and  more  bitter  hatred  against  the 
English.  They  realized  that  their  suzerainty  would  mean  for 
them  a  source  of  continual  misery.  They  realized  that  those 
who  had  for  twenty  years  afflicted  them  with  constant  war, 
were  not  seeking  the  good  of  the  country  or  the  repose  of  their 
subjects,  but  that  there  burned  within  them  an  innate  and 
inveterate  hatred  of  the  French  nation  which  they  wished  to 
overwhelm  with  trouble  and  misery  even  to  its  extermination, 
so  that,  between  French  and  English,  who  reciprocally  scorned 
each  other,  hatred  and  defiance  went  on  increasing.”  Thomas 
Basin  says  again  :  “  When  peace  was  made  between  French 
and  Burgundians  the  French  had  no  longer  any  one  but  the 
English  to  fight,  which  ought  to  assure  them  an  easy  victory, 
if  only  they  could  organize  their  armies.” 


527 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


The  two  last  important  battles  of  the  Hundred  Years  War 
were  those  of  Formigny  (15th  April  1450)  and  of  Castillon 
(17th  July  1453).  In  the  first  of  the  two  conflicts,  the  troops 
of  Charles  VII  were  commanded  by  the  Count  of  Clermont. 
The  English  lost  the  battle,  says  Jean  de  Bueil,  through  a  false 
manoeuvre.  44  When  they  saw  the  French  in  greater  numbers 
than  they  expected,  they  decided  to  take  a  more  advantageous 
position,  and  in  going,  they  fell  into  disorder  and  so  were 
defeated.”  At  Formigny  the  French  chivalry  took  its  revenge 
for  its  former  defeats,  for  it  was  to  the  charges  of  the  French 
cavalry  placed  on  the  two  wings  and  put  into  action  at  the 
opportune  time  that  the  victory  was  due.  For  the  first  time 
in  a  great  battle  the  English  were  more  numerous  than  the 
French.  The  victory  of  the  Count  of  Clermont  made  a  great 
stir.  Through  it  the  English  lost  all  spirit  and  heart. 

At  Castillon  (17th  July  1453),  Jean  de  Bueil  was  one  of  the 
two  leaders  of  the  French  army.  The  other  was  Jacques  de 
Chabannes,  one  of  the  last  companions  of  Jeanne  d’Arc.  The 
English  were  commanded  by  the  illustrious  Talbot.  As  at 
Formigny  they  were  in  greater  numbers,  twice  as  many  as  their 
adversaries  ;  but  since  Creçy,  Poitiers,  and  Agincourt  the  rôles 
were  reversed  :  the  superiority  in  organization,  and  above  all 
in  the  new  arm,  the  artillery,  was  on  the  side  of  the  French. 
At  each  volley  of  one  of  the  cannons  of  M.  Girault  five  or  six 
English  were  killed.  The  army  of  Henry  VI  suffered  a  crushing 
defeat.  Old  Talbot,  the  last  survivor  of  the  great  battles,  was 
among  the  dead.  The  few  towns  of  Guienne  in  which  the  red 
crosses  still  held  sway  capitulated,  Bordeaux  on  the  17th 
October  (1453).  The  English  had  only  Calais  left  in  France  : 
the  fine  port  which  was  not  to  be  reconquered  until  the  sixteenth 
century  by  the  great  Duke  of  Guise. 

In  these  last  and  so  rapid  successes  won  by  the  French  a 
large  place  should  be  given,  as  we  have  just  said,  to  the  artillery. 
The  progress  made  by  it  was  due,  chiefly,  to  the  activity  of  a 
man  of  genius,  Jean  Bureau:  44  A  Parisian,”  says  Thomas 
Basin,  44  of  plebeian  family,  small  in  stature  but  great  in  in¬ 
trepidity  and  thought.  He  furnished  the  fortresses  held  by 
the  French  with  an  artillery  which  rendered  them  impregnable.” 
Besieged  in  Caen,  the  English  had  concentrated  there  eonsider- 
528 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


able  means  of  defence  ;  but  the  French  put  into  action  a  bom¬ 
bardment  of  such  power  (for  the  period)  that  the  besieged  were 
terrified  and  capitulated  at  the  first  volley  (1st  July  1450). 
One  is  reminded  of  the  effects  of  the  Boche  420  in  the  first  days 
of  the  late  war.  At  the  Siege  of  Cherbourg  the  French  in¬ 
stalled  their  pieces  of  artillery  on  the  shore  at  low  tide.  They 
knew  how  to  protect  them  so  that  the  sea  did  not  damage  them 
when  it  covered  them,  and  hardly  had  the  tide  gone  out  than 
the  firing  began  again  in  the  finest  manner.  The  fortress  was 
reduced  in  less  than  a  month. 

The  date  1453  is  generally  considered  as  ending  the  Hundred 
Years  War  ;  but  it  is  not  until  the  3rd  November  1492  that 
the  Treaty  of  Etaples  will  officially  put  an  end  to  the  great 
conflict.  We  have  said  that  this  war  really  began  in  1296.  The 
struggle  had  lasted  nearly  two  centuries. 

Charles  VII,  the  little  King  sickly  and  stunted,  frail  and 
ethereal,  timid  and  reserved,  showed  himself  an  admirable 
organizer.  He  was  small  and  slender  in  appearance,  with 
delicate  and  agreeable  features.  He  dressed  with  minute 
care,  generally  in  green.  When  he  put  on  one  of  the  short 
tunics  which  reached  only  to  the  thighs,  in  his  tight  hose  after 
the  fashion  of  the  time,  his  bandy  legs  and  crooked  knees 
showed  plainly.  There  is  much  talk  of  the  influence  exercised 
on  him  in  the  second  part  of  his  reign  byAgnes  Sorel,  Mademoiselle 
de  Beauté,  as  she  was  called  from  the  domaine  of  Beauté- 
sur-Marne,  which  Charles  VII  had  given  her.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  her  beauty  was  held  in  high  esteem  by  contemporaries, 
even  if,  to  our  taste,  her  potato-like  nose  does  not  seem  very 
charming.  44  She  was  one  of  the  most  beautiful  women  I 
ever  saw,”  writes  Olivier  de  la  Marche,  44  and  did,  in  her  position, 
much  good  to  the  kingdom  of  France.  She  put  forward  to 
the  King’s  notice  young  soldiers  and  noble  companions  by  whom 
the  King  was  afterwards  well  served.”  Her  reign  was  indeed 
of  short  duration.  She  only  became  the  King’s  friend  in  1444, 
and  she  died  at  Jumièges  on  the  9th  February  1450. 

A  Flemish  Chronicler,  George  Chastellain,  will  write  a  fine 
eulogy  of  Charles  VII  :  44  He,  with  his  kingdom  all  desolate, 
vexed  and  destroyed,  like  a  ship  dismantled  and  demolished 
on  all  sides,  ruined  in  its  foundations,  and  in  all  its  beauty 

2  l  529 


THJE  MIDDLE  AGES 

and  magnificence  brought  to  ruin  ;  without  labour,  without 
inhabitants,  merchandise  or  justice,  without  rule  or  order,  full 
of  thieves  and  brigands,  of  poverty  and  anxiety,  violence  and 
exactions,  full  of  tyranny  and  inhumanity,  and  with  even  its 
royal  throne  lying  low,  overthrown,  a  footstool  for  men’s  feet 
for  the  English  to  trample  on  and  plunderers  to  wipe  their 
feet  upon,  he,  with  great  labour,  restored  it  to  freedom  and 
prosperity.” 

The  end  of  the  Hundred  Years  War  found  the  old  feudality 
destroyed.  It  is  ruined.  The  great  feudal  proprietor  has 
disappeared.  The  small  rural  Nobility  draws  nearer  to  the 
peasants  :  it  is  to  produce  those  famous  country  gentlemen 
who  will  be  one  of  the  elements  of  the  strength,  wealth,  and 
prosperity  of  our  country.  In  the  towns  the  higher  burgesses 
will  be  recast.  They  also  will  draw  nearer  to  the  working 
class  and  will  give  birth  to  the  Renaissance.  Trade  and 
industry  are  to  receive  at  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Charles  VII 
an  unheard-of  impetus.  The  French  flag  will  float  above  all 
others  in  the  ports  of  the  Levant.  The  great  figure  of  the 
merchant  Jacques  Cœur  remains  as  a  brilliant  witness  thereof. 
The  “  little  people  of  the  King’s  Council  ”  who  replace  the 
great  lords  and  high  dignitaries  of  former  days  will  have 
greatly  contributed  to  this  renewal  by  the  reform  of  military 
and  financial  administration,  of  judicial  organization,  and  even 
of  the  Church  itself.  A  special  mention  is  due  to  Pierre 
d’Oriole,  who  succeeded  Jean  de  Bar  on  the  4th  October  1453 
as  General  of  Finance.  Pierre  d’Oriole  will  extend  his  active 
and  beneficent  intelligence  over  the  last  nine  years  of  the 
reign  of  Charles  VII  and  the  reign  of  Louis  XI. 

Philippe  de  Comines  points  out  that  Charles  VII  was  the 
first  King  of  France  to  levy  taxes  regularly  without  the  grant 
of  the  States-General.  It  is  true  that  the  summoning  of  these 
latter  had  become  at  the  same  time  more  and  more  difficult 
and  illusory.  When  Charles  VII  had  called  together  the 
States-General  at  Chinon  (September  1428)  the  deputies  of 
Languedoc  came  only  to  complain  of  having  been  summoned, 
those  of  Rouergue  came  but  not  to  sit,  and  others  did  not 
come  at  all.  44  Charles  VII,”  writes  Jean  de  Bueil,  44  very 
soon  had  his  artillery  set  up,  and  was  a  man  always  on  his 
530 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WAR 


guard  ;  and  whatever  he  might  have  to  do,  he  never  laid  a 
great  subsidy  on  the  people.  He  had  always  an  ordinary 
tax  which  he  collected  every  year  from  his  subjects,  and  put 
in  safe  keeping,  so  that  he  had  recourse  to  it  at  need  without 
demanding  anything  else  from  them.  He  was  well  paid  in 
what  was  due  to  him,  and  no  one  dared  to  cheat  him  or  make 
default  of  payment.  He  also  kept  strict  justice,  and  no  one 
dared  break  his  statutes  and  ordinances,  or  do  wrong  to 
one  another.”  It  is  thus  that  good  reigns  are  made. 

Sources. — Les  Grands  traités  de  la  Guerre  de  Cent  ans,  ed.  E.  Cosneau, 
1889  ;  L' Ordonnance  Carbochienne,  ed.  Alf.  Coville,  1891  ;  Le  Père  H. 
Denifle,  La  Guerre  de  Cent  ans  et  la  désolation  des  églises,  1899  ;  Con¬ 
tinuateurs  de  G .  de  Nangis,  ed.  H.  Geraud,  1848 — the  part  drawn  up  by 
J.  de  Venette  in  a  democratic  spirit  is  extremely  remarkable  ;  Les  Grandes 
Chroniques,  ed.  Delachenal,  1910-20,  4  vols. — a  work  no  less  remarkable 
than  the  preceding  and  which  can  be  pitted  against  it,  having  been  drawn 
up  under  the  inspiration  of  Charles  V  ;  Journal  d'un  bourgeois  de  Paris, 
1405-49,  ed.  Al.  Tueley,  1881 — very  vivid  and  interesting  ;  Christine  de 
Pisan,  Le  Livre  des  faits  et  bonnes  mœurs  du  sage  roi  Charles  V,  various 
editions  ;  Chronicles  of  Froissart  et  of  Jean  le  Bel,  various  editions  ;  Chron¬ 
ique  des  quatre  premiers  Valois,  ed.  Siméon  Luce,  1862  ;  Chronique  du 
Mt.  St.  Michel  (1348-1468),  ed.  Siméon  Luce,  1879  ;  J.  de  Bueil,  Le 
Jouvencel,  ed.  Favre  and  Lecestre,  1887-89,  2  vols.  ;  Cuvelier,  Chron.  (in 
rhyme)  de  Bertrand  du  Guesclin,  ed.  Charrière,  1839  ;  Chron.  d' Antonio 
Marosini,  ed.  Germ.  Lefèvre-Pontalis  and  Leon  Dorez,  1899-1902,  3  vols.  ; 
Procès  de  condamnation  et  rehabilitation  de  Jeanne  d'Arc,  ed.  J.  Quicherat, 
1861-69,  5  vols.  ;  Procès  de  condamnation  de  Jeanne  d'Arc,  ed.  Pierre 
Champion,  1921  ;  Histoire  de  Thomas  Basin,  ed.  Quicherat,  1833-49, 
4  vols. 

Historical  Works. — A.  Coville,  “  Les  Premiers  Valois  et  la  Guerre 
de  Cent  Ans,”  in  the  Histoire  de  France,  ed.  E.  Lavisse,  iv.  1902  ;  Ch. 
Petit- Dutaillis,  “  Charles  VII,”  “  Louis  XI,”  ibid.  iv.  1902  ;  (Maxime 
Petit),  Histoire  de  France  Illustrée  (Larousse),  without  date,  4to — we 
owe  a  great  deal  to  these  three  works;  J.  d’Auriac,  La  Veritable  Jeanne 
d'Arc,  1920  ;  G.  du  Fresne  de  Beaucourt,  Histoire  de  Charles  VII, 
1881-91,  6  vols.  ;  Marcellin  Boudet,  La  Jacquerie  des  Tuchiens,  1895  ; 
Pierre  Champion,  Guillaume  de  Flavy,  1906  ;  Pierre  Champion,  Charles 
d'Orleans,  1911  ;  Cherest.  L’Archiprêtre,  1879  ;  Alf.  Coville,  Recherches 
sur  la  misère  en  Normandie  au  temps  de  Charles  VI,  1886  ;  Alf. 
Coville,  Les  Cabochiens  et  l'ordonnance  de  1413,  1888  ;  R.  Delachenal, 
Histoire  de  Charles  V,  1900,  2  vols.  ;  G.  Guigne,  Les  tard-Venus 
en  Lyonnais,  1886  ;  Jarry,  Vie  Politique  de  Louis  d'Orléans,  1886  ; 
Germ.  Lefèvre-Pontalis,  La  guerre  de  Partisans  dans  la  Haute-Normandie 
(1424-29),  Bibliothèque  de  l’Ecole  des  Chartes,  1896  ;  Ch.  Lénient,  La 

531 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Poesie  patriotique  en  France  au  Moyen  Age ,  1891  ;  Siméon  Luce,  Histoire 
de  la  Jacquerie ,  2nd  ed.,  1895  ;  Siméon  Luce,  Histoire  de  Bertrand  du 
Guesclin  et  de  son  époque ,  2nd  ed.,  1882  ;  Siméon  Luce,  Jeanne  d'Arc  à 
Domrémy ,  1886  ;  Moisant,  Le  Prince  Noir  en  Aquitaine ,  1894  ;  Leon 
Ivlirot,  Les  Insurrections  urbaines  au  début  du  règne  de  Charles  VI,  1905  ; 
H.  Moranville,  Etude  sur  la  vie  de  Jean  le  Mercier,  1888  ;  F.  T.  Perrens, 
Etienne  Marcel,  1860  ;  G.  Picot,  Histoire  des  Etats  Généraux ,  2nd  ed., 
1888  ;  J.  Quicherat,  Rodrigue  de  Villedrando,  1879  ;  Marcel  Thibault, 
Isabeau  de  Bavière,  1903  ;  Noèl  Valois,  Le  Conseil  du  Roi  aux  XIVe ,  XVe, 
et  XVIe  siècles,  1888  ;  Noël  Valois,  La  France  et  le  Grand  Schisme  d'OccU 
dent,  1896-1902,  4  vols. 


532 


CHAPTER  XX 

A  MODERN  KING  :  LOUIS  XI 


Louis  XI,  Dauphin.  His  hostility  against  his  father.  The 
League  of  the  Public  Weal.  Charles  the  Bold,  Duke  of  Bur¬ 
gundy.  The  War  of  the  Two  Roses  in  England.  Louis  XI  and 
the  Liègois.  The  Duke  de  Berry.  Nesle  and  Beauvais.  Jeanne 
Hachette  (1472).  The  ambitions  of  Charles  the  Bold.  His 
struggle  against  the  Swiss  :  Grandson  and  Morat  (2nd  March  and 
22nd  JuneM476).'^His  death  before  Nancy  (5th  January  1477). 

The  heritage  of  the  last  Duke  of  Burgundy.  The  administrative 
work  of  Louis  XI.  His  character.  His  death  at  Plessis-lès- 

Tours  (31st  August  1483). 

OUÏS  XI,  the  son  of  Charles  VII,  born  at  Bourges  on 
the  3rd  July  1423,  was  twenty-eight  years  old  when 
he  succeeded  his  father  (22nd  July  1461).  At  the 
end  of  their  life,  father  and  son  were  on  the  worst  possible 
terms  with  each  other.  In  his  lordship  of  Dauphiné,  which 
he  held  as  Dauphin  of  France,  Louis  had  tried  to  organize  a 
kind  of  independent  state  on  the  model  of  the  Duchy  of  Bur¬ 
gundy  :  so  much  so  that  his  father  had  sent  troops  against  him. 
Then  Louis  had  taken  refuge  with  the  great  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
Philip  the  Good,  who  welcomed  him  in  princely  fashion,  and 
gave  him  a  pension  of  £30,000.  And  Charles  VII  remarked, 
in  speaking  of  his  cousin  of  Burgundy  : 

“  He  receives  in  his  house  a  fox  which  will  eat  all  his  hens.” 

At  the  end  of  his  life  Charles  VII  took  food  only  with  the 
greatest  circumspection,  persuaded  that  his  son  and  heir  was 
trying  to  poison  him. 

“  In  my  opinion,”  remarks  Comines,  “  the  trouble  which  he 
(Louis  XI)  had  in  his  youth,  when  he  was  a  fugitive  from  his 
father  and  was  under  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  where  he  was  for 
six  years  (dating  from  1456),  benefited  him  very  greatly,  for  he 
was  forced  to  make  himself  agreeable  to  those  of  whom  he  had 

533 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


need,  and  this  advantage — which  is  no  small  one — adversity 
taught  him.” 

One  of  the  first  acts  of  the  new  King  was  to  dismiss  the  chief 
ministers  and  servants  of  his  father,  from  hatred  of  the  policy 
of  which  they  had  been  the  inspirers  or  the  instruments.  Two 
of  them,  Pierre  de  Brézé  and  Antoine  de  Chabannes,  were  so 
frightened  by  his  threats  that  they  fled.  After  this,  Louis  XI 
tried  to  win  back  the  majority  of  them  to  co-operate  with  him, 
being  moved  to  do  them  justice  and  because  his  policy,  whatever 
there  was  of  it,  was  the  continuation  of  that  of  his  predecessor. 
Olivier  de  la  Marche  and  Thomas  Basin  have  painted  the  temper 
of  Louis  XI,  suspicious,  changeable.  He  attached  to  himself,  by 
means  of  money,  the  assistance  which  seemed  desirable,  then 
he  suddenly  dismissed  his  most  important  auxiliaries  on  a 
suspicion,  an  idea,  a  whim,  the  motive  of  which  our  writers,  to 
tell  the  truth,  have  rarely  known.  Louis  XI,  that  politician 
wary,  cold,  and  calculating,  profoundly  meditating  for  long 
periods  on  his  plans,  was  of  an  impulsive  temperament,  natu¬ 
rally  inclined  to  sudden,  bold,  risky  decisions.  His  was  a 
character  strange  and  surprising,  made  up  of  contradictions,  at 
the  same  time  avaricious  and  liberal,  dressing  himself  in  so  mean 
a  way  as  to  surprise  and  scandalize  his  subjects,  and  spending  on 
birds  and  dogs  for  hunting,  on  building  and  feasting,  excessive 
sums.  This  man,  reserved,  cautious,  suspicious,  and  hypo¬ 
critical,  was  extremely  lively  and  fond  of  gossip.  Lie  would 
hardly  let  ambassadors  and  deputies  admitted  to  his  presence 
speak.  He  spoke  at  length  in  a  guttural  fashion,  and  without 
order  or  apparent  logic  :  but  in  a  language  pure  and  polished, 
and  his  discourse  did  not  fail  to  charm  by  the  sound  of  his  voice, 
“  so  sweet  that  it  lulled  one  like  the  sirens.” 

By  the  Treaty  of  Arras,  which  had  brought  about  the 
reconciliation  of  the  Houses  of  France  and  Burgundy,  the  towns 
of  the  Somme  had  been  ceded  to  Philip  the  Good.  They  formed 
a  line  of  important  fortresses  :  their  master  dominated  the 
Northern  provinces.  The  treaty  had  stipulated  for  the  possi¬ 
bility  of  redeeming  them  for  400,000  pounds.  Louis  XI  at 
once  set  his  mind  to  the  recovery  of  these  places  :  Abbeville, 
Amiens,  Péronne,  and  St.  Quentin.  He  succeeded  by  emptying 
Ins  treasury  and  levying  new  taxes  (September-October  1463). 
534 


A  MODERN  KING:  LOUIS  XI 


Louis  XI  followed,  with  regard  to  the  Count  of  Charolais,  the 
son  of  Philip  the  Good — the  prince  who  was  very  soon  to  be  the 
Duke  of  Burgundy,  Charles  the  Bold — a  policy  which  was  not 
without  analogy  with  that  which  Philip  the  Good  had  followed 
towards  himself  when  he  was  Dauphin.  He  paid  him  a  pension 
of  36,000  pounds  and  made  him  his  lieutenant  in  Normandy  ; 
but  the  pension  was  not  paid  regularly,  and  the  redemption  of  the 
towns  of  the  Somme  caused  the  breach.  The  Count  of  Charolais 
will  be  one  of  the  principal  authors  of  the  famous  League  of  the 
Public  Weal,  an  effort  of  decaying  feudalism  to  seize  once  more 
the  government  of  the  kingdom  from  which  events  were  daily 
removing  it  farther.  “And  this  war  was  called  the  Public  Weal  ” 
{le  Bien  public ),  writes  Comines,  “  because  it  was  begun  under 
colour  of  saying  that  it  was  for  the  public  welfare.”  It  was  a 
struggle  for  the  franchises  of  the  various  provinces  under  the 
direction  of  the  great  seigniorial  houses.  The  Duke  of  Brittany 
complained  that  Louis  XI  wished  to  impose  on  the  Breton 
Parlement  the  summons  to  the  Parlement  of  Paris.  “  The 
League  of  the  Public  Weal,”  observes  Viollet-le-Duc,  “  marked 
the  last  effort  of  the  feudal  aristocracy  to  seize  again  its  ancient 
power.  At  this  period  many  lords  furnished  their  castles  with 
new  defences  suited  to  artillery.  These  defensive  works  chiefly 
consisted  of  external  works,  big  thick  towers  pierced  with 
embrasures  to  hold  cannons,  platforms,  or  bulwarks  command¬ 
ing  the  outworks.” 

In  reality,  this  Public  Weal  consisted,  as  the  Duke  of  Nemours 
declared  cynically  enough,  in  demanding  from  the  King  “  big 
pensions  for  the  Nobles,”  at  the  head  of  whom  was  Louis’  own 
brother,  Charles,  Duke  of  Berry  ;  then  came  the  Count  of  Charo¬ 
lais,  the  Dukes  of  Brittany,  Lorraine,  and  Bourbon,  the  Counts  of 
Armagnac  and  St.  Pol,  and  the  illustrious  Bastard  of  Orleans. 

The  rival  armies  met  on  the  16th  July  1465  before  Montlhéry. 
Louis  XI  commanded  in  person  the  “Royalists”  {royaux); 
Charles  the  Bold  was  at  the  head  of  the  Confederates. 

“  The  two  armies  being  drawn  up  in  face  of  each  other, 
several  volleys  were  fired  from  the  cannons,  killing  some  men 
on  both  sides.  No  one  wanted  to  fight  any  more,  and  though 
our  band  was  bigger  than  that  of  the  King,  at  the  same  time  his 
presence  (the  King’s)  was  a  great  thing,  and  the  good  words  he 

535 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


spoke  to  the  soldiers  ;  and  I  believe  that  even  if  he  had  been 
alone  all  would  have  fled  from  him.”  We  owe  this  picture  to 
the  pen  of  Comines,  who  was  in  the  ranks  of  the  Confederates. 
Louis  XI,  seeing  that  the  action  was  indecisive,  hastened  to 
re-enter  Paris  so  as  to  make  sure  of  the  great  town,  leaving  his 
young  adversary,  Charles  the  Bold,  the  vain  satisfaction  of  lying 
on  the  field  of  battle. 

Comines  again  points  out  how  much  this  apparent  success, 
won  by  a  General-in-Chief  of  thirty-two  years,  afterwards 
exercised  on  his  life  a  malign  influence.  “  My  lord  of  Charo- 
lais,”  writes  Comines,  “remained  on  the  field,  very  joyful,  judging 
the  glory  to  be  his,  which  since  has  cost  him  very  dear  ;  for 
never  since  has  he  taken  the  opinion  of  any  one,  but  only  his 
own  ;  and  before  that  day  he  was  very  little  inclined  for  war, 
and  liked  nothing  belonging  to  it,  but  after  that  he  changed 
his  mind,  for  he  continued  in  it  until  his  death.” 

For  , the  moment  the  League  of  the  Public!  Weal  ended  in 
the  Treaty  of  Conflans  (November  1465).  Louis  XI  restored 
the  towns  of  the  Somme,  and  one  of  the  members  of  the  League, 
particularly  attached  to  the  Count  of  Charolais,  Louis,  Count 
of  St.  Pol,  was  made  Constable  of  France. 

Philip  the  Good,  Duke  of  Burgundy,  died  at  Bruges  on  the 
15th  June  1467.  He  had  proved  himself  an  admirable  prince, 
liberal  and  magnificent,  of  a  large  political  sense  and  supreme 
ability.  He  did  much  harm  to  the  French  kingdom  in  his 
desire  to  avenge  the  death  of  his  father,  John  the  Fearless; 
but  he  returned  to  the  French  cause  when  he  deemed  his  re¬ 
sentment  sufficiently  satisfied.  It  is  difficult  to  picture  the 
pomp  and  magnificence  with  which  he  had  made  the  Court  of 
Dijon  resplendent.  He  died  at  the  age  of  seventy-one,  the 
wealthiest  prince  in  Europe,  not  excepting  any  of  the  crowned 
heads,  leaving  his  Duchy  in  a  condition  of  incomparable 
prosperity. 

The  contrast  established  by  Thomas  Basin  between  the 
lands  of  the  country  of  France,  which  the  Hundred  Years 
War  ruined,  with  those  subject  to  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  which 
it  spared,  is  poignant. 

“  It  is  unnecessary  to  point  out  to  the  traveller  the  boundary 
at  which  one  passes  from  the  Burgundian  suzerainty  on  to 
536 


A  MODERN  KING:  LOUIS  XI 


French  territory.  Hardly  have  you  set  foot  in  the  kingdom 
before  the  aspect  of  the  country  becomes  sordid  and  rough  : 
uncultivated  fields,  briars,  thorns,  and  brushwood  ;  some  few 
field  workers,  emaciated  and  bloodless,  covered  with  rags  ;  in 
the  towns  and  villages  numerous  ruins  and  empty  dwellings, 
and  in  those  which  are  inhabited,  poor  and  insufficient  furniture, 
a  picture  of  wretchedness,  depression,  and  servitude  ;  but  now 
behold  us  under  the  Burgundian  government  :  everything  is 
flourishing,  resplendent,  growing  ;  there  are  numerous  towns 
and  fortresses  ;  the  population  is  large,  the  houses  are  varied 
and  of  splendid  appearance,  full  of  fine  furnishings  ;  the  fields 
are  cultivated,  the  fences  in  a  good  state  ;  the  people  are  well 
dressed  and  smiling.” 

The  Duke  of  Burgundy  required  only  small  contributions 
from  his  subjects.  He  had  armies  well  equipped  and  trained, 
but  not  large.  Through  his  situation  between  Flanders, 
Lorraine,  Germany,  and  Italy,  through  the  richness  of  his  soil 
and  the  magnificence  of  his  wines,  the  trade  of  the  country  was 
of  the  most  prosperous.  44  The  Burgundians,”  writes  Comines, 
44  were  overwhelmed  with  riches  and  in  a  condition  of  great 
repose  ;  .  .  .  the  expenses  and  clothes  of  men  and  women 
great  and  superfluous  ;  the  banquets  greater  and  more  lavish 
than  in  any  other  place  ;  the  baths  and  other  festivities  with 
women  ...”  and  this  in  all  classes  of  society. 

Happily  for  France,  England  in  her  turn  was  to  become 
acquainted  with  the  bloody  quarrels  from  which  the  kingdom 
of  the  fleur-de-lis  had  suffered  so  much  during  the  reign  of 
Charles  VI  and  the  first  part  of  the  reign  of  Charles  VII.  In 
her  turn  England  was  divided  into  two  enemy  camps — that  of 
the  red  rose  and  that  of  the  white,  the  side  of  the  House  of 
Lancaster  and  that  of  the  House  of  York.  44  And  there  is  no 
doubt,”  says  Comines,  44  that  if  England  had  been  in  her 
former  state,  that  this  kingdom  of  France  would  have  had 
many  fights.” 

During  the  War  of  the  Public  Weal,  Louis  XI  had  fomented 
a  revolt  of  the  people  of  Liège.  The  treaty  of  alliance  between 
the  French  King  and  the  warlike  burgesses  was  concluded 
on  the  17th  June  1465.  The  prince-bishop  of  Liège,  against 
whom  the  town  had  revolted,  was  the  nephew  of  Philip  the 

537 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Good.  Since  then  the  war  between  the  Duke  of  Burgundy 
and  his  good  town  had  smouldered  with  alternating  periods 
of  quiet,  and  violent  outbreaks.  The  men  of  Liège  were 
beaten  in  the  end.  On  the  17th  November  1467,  Charles  the 
Bold  entered  the  town  and  ordered  the  destruction  of  the 
ramparts. 

Louis,  however,  who  relied  more  on  his  diplomatic  ability 
than  on  the  uncertain  accidents  of  the  war,  had  demanded  an 
interview  with  Charles  the  Bold  so  as  to  establish  by  a  common 
agreement  the  bases  of  a  definite  peace.  Charles  received  the 
King  in  his  castle  of  Peronne.  The  parleys  were  taking  their 
course  when  Charles  heard  that  Liège  had  revolted  again, 
doubtless  at  the  instigation  of  the  French  King  and  by  means 
of  his  subsidies.  He  fell  into  a  terrible  rage.  He  had  the  King 
in  his  hands,  and  Louis  XIV  believed  himself  lost.  It  is  told 
that  the  nearness  of  the  tower  in  which  Herbert  de  Vermandois 
had  had  Charles  the  Simple  killed,  made  his  flesh  creep.  But 
this  much  must  in  justice  be  said  for  him,  that  after  having 
so  imprudently  allowed  himself  to  be  captured,  he  showed  a 
brave  face  and  was  able  to  appease  his  terrible  vassal — on  the 
hardest  conditions,  it  is  true  ;  the  possession  of  the  Somme 
towns  was  to  be  definitely  confirmed  to  Charles  the  Bold  ; 
the  Duke  of  Berry,  a  close  ally  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  was 
to  receive  as  appanage  Champagne  and  Brie,  adjoining  the 
Duchy  of  Burgundy  ;  finally,  Louis  XI  himself  went  to  Liège 
to  put  down  there,  cheek  by  jowl  with  the  Duke,  the  brave 
burgesses  whom  he  himself  had  stirred  up  to  revolt  (14th 
October  1468).  Louis  XI  had  to  be  present  at  the  merciless 
punishment  of  the  town  whose  citizens  welcomed  him  with 
cries  of  “  Long  live  the  King  !  ”  (14th  October  1468). 

Louis  XI  had  committed  an  imprudence  ;  Charles  the  Bold 
committed  another.  It  is  the  eternal  history  of  the  Caudine 
Forks.  Charles  the  Bold  should  either  have  destroyed  the 
cunning  King  of  France  when  he  was  at  his  mercy  or  behaved 
to  him  like  a  gentleman.  Louis  XI  returned  to  Paris,  sore, 
desiring  only  vengeance.  He  got  the  States  of  Tours  to  annul 
the  Treaty  of  Peronne  obtained  by  a  trick  ;  he  sent  soldiers 
to  occupy  the  Somme  towns,  St.  Quentin,  Amiens,  Roye,  and 
Montdidier  ;  his  army  beat  the  Burgundians  at  Buxy.  Charles 
538 


A  MODERN  KING:  LOUIS  XI 


the  Bold,  “  much  surprised,”  formed  the  second  League  of  the 
Public  Weal.  The  “  surprise  ”  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  was 
increased  by  the  agreement  plotted  between  Louis  XI  and  his 
brother  Charles  de  Berry.  The  King  of  France  had  persuaded 
this  latter  to  accept  the  remote  Guienne  in  exchange  for 
Champagne  and  Brie,  which  had  been  granted  to  him  ;  his 
complicity  could  no  longer  be  of  the  same  use  to  Charles 
the  Bold.  Then  the  Duke  of  Berry  dies  at  Bordeaux  on  the 
24th  May  1472.  The  Duke  of  Burgundy  published  a  violent 
manifesto,  declaring  that  Louis  XI  had  poisoned  his  brother, 
a  calumny  which  Thomas  Basin  and  Olivier  de  la  Marche 
echoed. 

“  On  the  news  of  the  death  of  the  Duke  of  Berry,”  writes 
Comines,  “  angrily,  the  said  Duke  (of  Burgundy)  set  out  and 
took  the  road  towards  Nesle  in  Vermandois  ;  and  he  began 
an  ugly  and  wicked  device  of  war,  which  he  had  never  used 
before  :  it  was  to  have  every  place  to  which  he  came  set  on 
fire.” 

At  Nesle  the  troops  of  Charles  the  Bold  gave  themselves 
up  to  frightful  excesses.  The  soldiers  cut  off  the  hands  of  the 
people.  In  the  church  where  women  and  children  had  taken 
refuge  there  was  blood  higher  than  one’s  shins.  The  next  day 
the  town  was  destroyed.  The  attack  had  come  (12th  June 
1472)  without  warning.  The  people  were  living  in  the  security 
of  peace.  Charles  was  immediately  punished  for  it  before 
Beauvais.  Terrified  at  the  fate  which  awaited  them,  the 
burgesses  made  a  desperate  resistance.  The  women  seconded 
the  men.  There  were  feats  of  arms  in  which  shone  Jeanne 
Laisné,  called  Jeanne  Hachette,  from  the  little  hatchet  which 
she  used  to  fell  the  Burgundian  soldiers  at  the  top  of  the 
ramparts  (July  1472). 

Charles  the  Bold  conceived  some  outrageous  plans.  The 
state  of  magnificence  and  prosperity  at  which  his  House  had 
arrived  and  his  first  military  successes,  which  were  exaggerated 
in  his  imagination,  had  turned  his  head.  Olivier  de  la  Marche, 
who  lived  in  close  intimacy  with  him  and  never  speaks  of  him 
except  with  deference,  writes  on  this  subject  :  “  He  brewed 
more  enterprises  than  several  men’s  lives  would  have  been 
sufficient  to  fulfil.”  There  was  always  the  plan  of  uniting  his 

539 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


dominions  in  Flanders  and  Artois  with  those  in  Burgundy,  by 
the  acquisition  of  Lorraine  and  Alsace.  But  his  views  did  not 
end  here.  He  wanted  to  form  a  great  kingdom  which  should 
stretch  from  the  Mediterranean  to  the  North  Sea  and  which 
would  have  made  him  the  most  powerful  sovereign  in  Europe. 
He  included  in  his  plans  the  Rhine  lands,  Switzerland,  Savoy, 
Dauphiné,  and  Provence,  and  on  all  sides  he  had  begun  an 
actively  aggressive  policy. 

“  As  for  the  House  of  Savoy,”  writes  Comines,  “  the  aforesaid 
Duke  (Charles  the  Bold)  disposed  of  it  as  his  own.”  The  Duke 
of  Milan  was  his  ally.  King  René  of  Sicily  (René  of  Anjou) 
was  willing  to  put  his  land  of  Provence  into  his  hands  !  From 
Sigismund,  Archduke  of  Austria,  he  had  obtained,  for  50,000 
pounds,  the  Landgraveship  of  Haute  Alsace  and  the  county  of 
Ferrette.  Duke  Arnold  of  Gueldre  abandoned  his  States  to 
him.  But  in  the  Rhine  lands  and  Switzerland  Charles  the 
Bold  met  with  resistance.  His  ambitions  did  not  end  here.  He 
had  claims  on  the  throne  of  England.  On  the  3rd  November 
1471,  he  declared  before  a  notary  that  his  mother,  Isabella  of 
Portugal,  had  declared  herself  the  sole  heir  of  Henry  VI,  and 
that  she  had  transmitted  her  rights  to  him.  His  ambitious 
dreams  extended  to  the  Imperial  Crown. 

The  Treaty  of  Arras  had  exempted  Philip  the  Good,  during 
his  life,  from  the  suzerainty  of  the  French  King,  but  Charles 
the  Bold  came  under  this  again  with  its  rights  of  appeal. 
The  new  Duke  of  Burgundy  also  planned  to  free  himself  from  it. 
He  established  parliaments  at  Beaune  and  at  Dole,  a  court 
of  appeal  at  Malines  (23rd  December  1473).  Just  as  the 
English  King  had  once  thought  he  could  do  in  Guienne,  he 
forbade  his  subjects  to  appeal  to  the  Court  of  Paris. 

With  surprising  activity  Charles  the  Bold  operated  on  all 
points  at  once,  with  money,  diplomacy,  and  arms.  To  give 
himself  breathing  space  he  concluded  on  the  13th  September 
1475  a  nine  years’  truce  with  Louis  XI,  and  delivered  up  to 
him  the  Constable  of  St.  Pol,  who  had  committed  treason  in 
his  favour.  Louis  had  the  felonious  Constable  beheaded  (19th 
December  1475).  As  to  the  dreams  of  Charles  the  Bold  they 
were  dashed  to  pieces  against  an  obstacle  he  had  scorned.  In 
the  two  terrible  battles  of  Grandson  and  Morat  (22nd  June 
540 


A  MODERN  KING:  LOUIS  XI 


1476)  the  long  Swiss  pikes  triumphed  over  the  Burgundian 
bombs  and  spears. 

“  His  grief  at  the  loss  of  the  first  battle  of  Grandson  was  so 
great,”  writes  Comines,  “  and  troubled  his  spirits  so  much, 
that  he  fell  into  a  serious  illness.  ...” 

From  this  time  Charles  the  Bold  lost  that  good  sense  which 
is  so  necessary  to  statesmen  and  with  which  he  had  never 
been  provided  in  too  great  abundance.  His  fine  alliances  were 
broken  off.  René  of  Anjou  wras  the  first  to  draw  near  again 
to  the  King  of  France.  “  The  King  of  Sicily  arranged  that  his 
county  of  Provence  should  return  to  the  King  ”  (Jean  de 
Roye). 

Obstinate,  headstrong,  tenacious,  Charles  the  Bold  was 
always  desirous  of  uniting  by  the  conquest  of  the  Duchy  of 
Lorraine  the  two  branches  of  his  States,  Flanders  and  Bur¬ 
gundy.  The  defeat  of  the  Burgundians  by  the  Swiss  had 
brought  about  the  return  of  René  of  Lorraine  to  his  capital.  On 
the  22nd  October  1477  Charles  the  Bold  came  to  lay  siege  to 
Nancy.  With  the  money  secretly  provided  for  him  by  the 
French  King,  the  Duke  of  Lorraine  had  levied  an  army  of 
12,000  Swiss,  who  marched  to  the  relief  of  the  fortress.  It  was 
the  depth  of  winter  ;  the  plain  lay  white  under  a  grey  sky. 
Charles  the  Bold  had  for  some  time  put  all  his  confidence  in  a 
sort  of  condottiere,  an  Italian,  Count  Niccolo  de  Campobasso, 
whom  the  French  chroniclers  call  Bobache.  Charles  the  Bold 
advanced  boldly  against  his  enemies,  although  they  were  two 
or  three  times  superior  in  number.  The  treason  of  Bobache, 
who  abandoned  his  protector  with  his  Italian  contingent  at  the 
beginning  of  the  engagement,  completed  the  defeat.  The  plans 
of  Charles  the  Bold  foundered  in  the  terrible  disaster  of  Nancy 
(5th  January  1477),  amidst  the  ice  and  the  cold.  “  On  the 
Tuesday  (7th  January)  following  the  said  battle,  a  page  pointed 
out  plainly  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  dead  and  quite  naked,  and 
round  him  1400  men  quite  naked,  quite  far  enough  away  from 
one  another.  And  the  aforesaid  Duke  of  Burgundy  had  had 
a  blow  from  the  kind  of  weapon  known  as  a  halberd,  from  the 
side  of  the  middle  of  the  head  above  the  ear  as  far  as  the  teeth, 
a  blow  of  a  pike  across  the  thighs,  and  another  in  the  anus  ” 
(Jean  de  Roye). 


541 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


The  dream  of  the  Grand  Dukes  of  the  West,  the  recon¬ 
stitution  of  the  ancient  kingdom  of  Austrasia  between  France 
and  “  the  Germans,”  was  dead.  In  the  region  of  the  arts 
at  least,  by  the  fusion  of  the  French,  Flemish,  Rhenish,  and 
Italian  elements,  the  magnificent  House  of  Burgundy,  founded 
by  Philip  the  Bold  and  destroyed  by  Charles  the  Bold,  will 
have  left  lasting  traces. 

Speaking  of  Charles  the  Bold,  Bobache  the  traitor  said 
correctly  enough  to  the  Duke  of  Brittany,  whose  relative  he 
pretended  to  be  and  who  had  received  him  : 

“  He  was  cruel  and  inhuman,  and  in  all  his  enterprises  he 
had  no  success  and  only  lost  time,  men,  and  lands  by  his  foolish 
obstinacy.”  The  fate  of  Charles  the  Bold  no  doubt  inspired 
Louis  XI  with  his  favourite  motto  :  “  When  pride  rides  before, 
shame  and  loss  follow  close.” 

In  virtue  of  the  custom  which  gave  back  to  the  French 
Crown  the  appanages  which  it  had  granted  when  the  holder 
died  without  a  male  heir,  the  Duchy  of  Burgundy  fell  into  the 
hands  of  Louis  XI,  for  Charles  the  Bold  left  only  a  daughter, 
Marie  of  Burgundy.  On  the  1st  February  1478  the  royal 
army  entered  Dijon. 

Louis  XI  would  have  liked  indeed  to  lay  hands  on  the 
whole  heritage  of  Charles  the  Bold,  for  the  last  Duke  of  Burgundy 
owned  the  Low  Countries,  Artois,  and  Franche-Comté  ;  but  he 
came  up  against  the  opposition  of  the  English  joined  with  the 
Flemish.  The  sinister  beginnings  of  the  Flundred  Years  War 
were  revolved  in  his  mind.  Marie  of  Burgundy  was  twenty 
years  old.  Louis  XI  at  first  thought  of  betrothing  her  to  his 
son,  the  Dauphin,  who  was  eight.  The  plan  was  not  impossible, 
and  flattered  the  young  girl  ;  but  Louis  XI  gave  it  up.  He 
remembered  the  way  in  which  he  himself,  as  Dauphin,  had 
behaved  towards  his  father,  Charles  VII,  and  fearing  that  his 
son  might  one  day  behave  in  the  same  way  towards  him,  he 
was  unwilling  to  give  him  so  much  power.  This  moment  is 
one  of  the  most  serious  in  our  history.  Comines,  who  had 
attached  himself  to  Louis  XI,  speaks  of  it  with  due  care  and 
attention.  Deceiving  himself,  and  without  exposing  the  real 
motive  which  decided  him,  the  King  declared  that  he  was 
unwilling  to  reconstitute  so  large  a  State  as  the  old  Duchy  of 
542 


A  MODERN  KING:  LOUIS  XI 


Burgundy  with  its  dependencies,  but  on  the  contrary  to  divide 
its  different  parts  among  various  Powers. 

“  He  was  inclined,”  says  Comines,  “  to  undo  and  destroy 
this  House,  and  to  share  its  lordships  among  various  people  : 
and  he  named  those  to  whom  he  intended  to  give  the  counties, 
such  as  Namur  and  Hainault,  which  are  situated  near  him  ! 
With  the  other  great  tracts  such  as  Brabant  and  Holland  he 
wanted  to  win  some  German  lords,  who  should  be  his  friends 
and  help  him  to  execute  his  will.  He  was  pleased  to  tell  me 
all  these  things,  because,  formerly,  I  had  advised  him  in  the 
other  direction,  described  above  (the  betrothal  of  Mary  of 
Burgundy  and  the  Dauphin),  and  he  wanted  me  to  hear  his 
reasons  and  why  he  did  not  follow  my  advice,  and  that  this 
plan  was  more  useful  for  his  kingdom,  which  had  suffered  much 
through  the  greatness  of  the  House  of  Burgundy  and  the  great 
lordships  which  it  possessed.” 

Comines,  with  his  fine  political  insight,  was  not  convinced  ; 
but  he  made  no  more  objections,  impressed  by  the  personality 
of  Louis  XI.  “  At  the  same  time,”  he  said,  “  the  judgment 
of  our  good  King  was  so  great  that  neither  I  nor  any  other 
of  the  company  would  have  been  able  to  see  so  clearly  in  these 
matters  as  he  did  himself.  For  he  was  without  doubt  one 
of  the  wisest  and  subtlest  of  princes.  .  .  .” 

However,  Comines  was  right.  He  was  to  show  it.  “  In 
these  great  matters  God  disposes  the  hearts  of  Kings.  .  .  . 
If  it  had  been  His  pleasure  that  our  King  should  have  con¬ 
tinued  the  plan  which  he  had  himself  advised  before  the  death 
of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  (the  marriage  of  the  Dauphin  with 
Marie  of  Burgundy),  the  wars  which  have  taken  place  since, 
and  those  which  are  still  going  on,  would  not  have  been.  .  .  . 
I  say  these  things  at  length  to  show  that,  in  the  beginning, 
when  one  wishes  to  embark  on  so  great  an  undertaking,  that 
one  should  consult  and  debate  well,  in  order  to  choose  the 
better  part.  I  do  not  mean  to  blame  our  King,  by  saying 
that  he  had  been  wanting  in  this  matter,  for,  perhaps,  others 
who  knew  and  heard  more  than  I  were  then  of  his  opinion, 
however  little  debate  there  was,  there  or  elsewhere,  on  the 
said  subject.” 

For  Louis  XI,  differing  in  this  from  all  his  predecessors 

543 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


on  the  French  throne,  never  acted  except  as  he  pleased,  without 
consulting  those  round  him.  “  The  King’s  horse,”  said  Jacques 
de  Brézé,  44  carries  his  whole  council.” 

Troubled  by  his  conscience,  Louis  XX  fell,  in  this  matter, 
into  the  greatest  political  fault  that  a  French  King  had  com¬ 
mitted  since  the  divorce  of  Louis  XII  from  Eleanor  of  Aquitaine. 

On  the  18th  August  1477,  at  Ghent,  Marie  of  Burgundy 
married  Maximilian  of  Austria,  son  of  the  German  Emperor, 
and  himself  future  German  Emperor,  bringing  him  his  rights 
over  Flanders,  Brabant,  and  Hainault.  From  their  union 
will  spring  Philip  the  Fair,  Archduke  of  Austria,  who  after 
having  married  Joanna  of  Aragon,  the  daughter  of  Ferdinand 
of  Castile,  will  ascend  the  Spanish  throne,  after  the  death 
of  his  mother-in-law,  and  will  have  a  son,  Charles  V.  Two 
centuries  and  a  half  of  efforts,  the  blood  of  thousands  upon 
thousands  of  Frenchmen  will  painfully  redeem  the  mistake 
committed  in  1477  by  the  ablest  and  most  cunning  of  our 
kings.  Perhaps  even  the  consequences  of  this  fault  still  weigh 
upon  us  to-day. 

The  reunion  of  the  Duchy  of  Burgundy  worked  without 
any  great  difficulty.  44  On  all  the  roads  one  met  Burgundian 
lords  leading  the  soldiers  of  the  King  ”  ;  but  if  the  nobles  and 
the  rich  burgesses  welcomed  cordially  the  banners  of  the  fleur- 
de-lis  it  was  not  the  same  with  the  common  people,  who  re¬ 
mained  attached  to  their  old  Dukes.  The  old  struggle  between 
Burgundians  and  Armagnacs  is  continued.  As  England  is  out 
of  the  game,  it  is  in  the  House  of  Austria  that  the  proletariat 
seeks  support.  There  were  some  risings.  The  president  of 
the  Burgundian  Parlement  was  murdered,  and  at  Dijon  the 
royal  banner  thrown  down  from  the  tower  over  which  it  waved. 
The  great  men  of  the  town  brought  back  the  people  of  Dijon  to 
a  sense  of  their  duty.  “  By  your  good  means,”  writes  Louis  XI 
to  them,  44  you  have  found  a  way  to  reduce  the  town  to  our 
obedience.”  Just  the  same  in  Franche-Comté,  into  which 
Louis  XI  had  sent  forward  his  troops,  the  higher  burgesses 
incline  towards  France,  while  the  artisans  wish  to  resist  the 
King’s  arms.  These  facts  dominate  the  policy  of  Louis  XI 
towards  the  French  towns  in  which  he  was  generally  favour¬ 
able  to  the  administration  of  the  notables.  The  roots  of  this 
544 


A  MODERN  KING:  LOUIS  XI 


policy  went  back  two  centuries.  But  elsewhere  also  he  tried 
to  give  to  this  governing  class  a  wider  basis  by  declaring  all 
possessors  of  fiefs  to  be  noble.  We  have  already  spoken  of 
those  invaluable  country  gentlemen  who  are  to  be  one  of  the 
most  active  elements  in  the  Renaissance.  And  in  the  towns 
also  Louis  XI  raised  to  the  Nobility  a  burgess  aristocracy  which, 
too,  in  the  Renaissance,  will  be  the  inspiration  of  the  fine 
artistic  and  commercial  expansion. 

Tocqueville  has  pointed  out  :  “  Louis  XI  destroyed  all  the 
popular  and  democratic  character  of  the  towns,  and  kept  their 
government  in  a  small  number  of  families  attached  to  his 
reform  and  bound  to  his  power  by  immense  benefits.”  This 
policy  was  a  legacy  to  Louis  XI  from  his  predecessors,  who  had 
never  ceased  to  support  the  Patricians  in  the  towns,  for  it  was 
round  the  Patricians  that  were  grouped  the  supporters  of  the 
fleur-de-lis. 

We  have  already  spoken  of  the  predominance  in  the  councils 
of  Charles  VII  of  “  small  folk.”  Those  who  are  to  serve  as 
advisers  to  Louis  XI  will  be  of  still  humbler  origin.  There 
was  Tristan  the  Hermit,  who  had  plied  the  trade  of  executioner 
and  whom  his  master  made  Provost  of  the  Marshalls  of  France. 
The  Englishman,  Robert  Neville,  however,  gave  it  as  his 
judgment  that  Tristan  was  “  the  most  diligent,  quick,  and 
subtle  mind  in  the  kingdom.”  Then  there  was  Olivier  the 
Bad,  valet  de  chambre  and  barber  to  the  King.  Louis  XI 
ennobled  him  and  changed  his  name  to  Olivier  le  Daim.  He 
was  of  Flemish  origin,  from  the  district  near  Ghent.  Louis  XI 
employed  him  in  diplomatic  missions  to  his  native  country. 
He  had  very  great  confidence  in  him.  He  gave  him  consider¬ 
able  possessions — the  ponds  of  Meulan,  the  woods  of  Sénart  ; 
but  after  the  King’s  death  the  poor  fellow  was  hanged  (24th  May 
1484).  Finally,  there  was  his  doctor,  Jacques  Coitiers,  who  had 
a  hold  on  him  through  the  morbid  fear  the  King  had  of  death. 
All  these  people,  and  others  of  still  less  importance,  were  gorged 
by  Louis  XI  with  goods  and  honours  ;  but  they  had  to  give 
him  blind  submission.  “  It  was  great  servitude  to  be  among 
his  suite,”  says  Chastellain. 

The  financial  administration  of  Louis  XI  was  remarkable, 
and  controlled  by  men  of  rare  worth,  Pierre  d’ Oriole  and 

2  M  545 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

Etienne  Chevalier.  In  this  he  continued  the  work  of  his 
father.  The  tax  (faille),  it  must  be  said,  was  more  than  doubled  ; 
but  the  regularity  and  accuracy  of  its  collection  made  it  lighter  ; 
moreover,  the  feudal  charges  which  had  weighed  on  the  people 
in  previous  reigns,  were  decreased  ;  and  commercial  prosperity, 
partly  thanks  to  the  King,  took  a  considerable  impetus. 
Louis  XI  decreed  that  the  Nobility  could  devote  itself  to 
commerce  without  depreciation.  He  was  the  first  King  to 
introduce  systematically  commercial  clauses  in  the  treaties, 
agreements,  or  truces  which  he  was  called  upon  to  conclude. 
He  entrusted  his  representatives  in  foreign  countries  with 
commercial  missions,  and  wanted  to  organize  in  London,  in 
1470,  an  exhibition  of  the  best  products  of  French  industry,  so 
44  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  aforesaid  kingdom  should  know 
that  the  French  merchants  were  able  to  provide  for  them,  like 
the  other  nations.”  He  favoured  the  industries  connected 
with  art  and  luxury  :  lace,  tapestries,  earthenware.  It  is  to 
Louis  XI  that  Lyons  owes  its  magnificent  silk  industry,  which 
was  to  bring  it  later  such  honour  and  wealth.  And  we  may  add 
that  this  admirable  foundation  was  imposed  on  the  people  of 
Lyons  against  their  will,  through  the  intelligent  persistence  of 
the  King. 

Louis  XI  encouraged  the  beginnings  of  printing. 

He  gave  a  great  impulse  to  agriculture.  Waste  and  un¬ 
tilled  ground  were  divided  on  his  initiative  among  labourers 
and  lords  on  condition  that  they  were  cultivated. 

Louis  XI  created  the  postal  service  in  France  by  letters 
dated  from  Lucheux  (Somme)  (the  19th  June  1464).  The 
relays  for  the  horses  succeeded  each  other  at  distances  of  four 
leagues. 

Finally,  in  the  military  sphere,  Louis  XI  developed  further 
his  father’s  great  reforms.  His  attention  was  especially 
directed  to  the  artillery.  It  has  been  said  that  the  artillery  of 
Louis  XI  would  have  withstood,  if  the  need  had  arisen,  that 
of  all  the  other  Powers  of  Europe  united.  Modest  and  poor  in 
his  garments,  made  of  common  cloth,  black  or  grey,  he  had 
them  repaired  and  new  sleeves  put  in  his  doublet  when  they 
were  worn  at  the  elbows.  Hiding  in  his  corners,  shunning 
appearing  in  public  and  all  show,  so  much  so  that  the  streets 
546 


A  MODERN  KING:  LOUIS  XI 


leading  off  the  main  streets  of  the  towns  through  which  he 
passed  were  barricaded  to  prevent  his  slipping  away  from  the 
receptions  organized  in  his  honour  ;  surrounded  by  nobodies 
and  sometimes  by  vulgar  scoundrels  ;  drinking  in  taverns,  with 
elbows  on  the  table  side  by  side  with  common  companions, 
Louis  XI  showed  himself  none  the  less  a  great  prince  by  the 
justice  of  his  views  in  the  majority  of  circumstances,  by  his 
liberalities  which  he  knew  how  to  scatter  at  the  oppor¬ 
tune  moment,  and  by  the  power  to  which  he  brought  the 
monarchy.  Europe  considered  him  the  first  monarch  of  his 
day,  and  even  in  Italy,  princes  and  republics  called  on  him  to 
arbitrate  in  their  disputes. 

It  has  been  said  of  Louis  XI  that  he  was  cruel,  and  we 
cannot  deny  it  when  we  remember  the  horrible  prisons,  the 
44  King’s  little  girls  ”  (Fillettes  du  roi),  in  which  he  kept  shut 
up  those  who  betrayed  him  ;  but  the  Burgundian  Molinet 
acknowledged  that  he  would  have  spent  without  hesitation 
10,000  crowns  to  save  the  life  of  a  single  one  of  his  archers 
— he  was  careful  of  the  lives  of  his  men  and  anxious  for  their 
comfort. 

Comines  has  given  us  a  description  of  the  Fillettes  du  roi, 
the  more  exact  as  he  was  himself  kept  for  a  period  of  eight 
months  in  one  during  the  reign  of  Charles  VIII.  44  It  is  true 
that  he  (Louis  XI)  had  made  some  rigorous  prisons,  like  iron 
cages,  and  others  of  wood  covered  with  sheets  of  iron,  and  within 
with  terrible  ironwork,  some  eight  feet  wide  (two  and  a  half 
metres)  and  a  foot  more  than  the  height  of  a  man.  The  first 
who  gave  him  the  idea  was  the  Bishop  of  Verdun  (Guillaume 
de  Haraucourt),  who  was  straightway  put  into  the  first  which 
was  made,  and  lay  there  fourteen  years.  Many  since  have 
cursed  him,  and  among  them  myself,  who  have  had  a  taste 
of  it  (in  the  castle  of  Loches)  under  the  present  King  (Charles 
VIII)  for  eight  months.” 

He  was  religious,  and  even  more  devout  than  religious, 
frequenting  churches  and  shrines,  and  submitting  his  royal 
person,  in  profound  sincerity,  to  the  most  afflicting  mummeries. 
He  wore  in  his  black  hat  of  greasy  felt  little  leaden  images, 
pious  figures  44  which,  on  every  occasion  when  good  news 
reached  him,  he  kissed,  falling  on  his  knees,  wherever  he 

547 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


happened  to  be,  so  suddenly  that  sometimes  he  seemed  stupid 
rather  than  a  wise  man.” 

He  has  been  called  a  tyrant  ;  and  in  fact  he  commanded 
in  an  imperious  way,  as  we  have  said,  those  whom  he  had 
chosen  as  his  political  instruments,  and  did  not  allow  them  to 
rest  on  their  oars  ;  but  on  great  occasions  he  allowed  them  to 
oppose  him,  submitting  his  will  to  reason.  He  had  sent  for 
the  registration  by  the  Parliament  some  fiscal  edicts  involving 
heavy  new  impositions.  A  delegation  came  to  him  from  the 
High  Court  of  Justice  with  the  First  President  at  its  head  : 

44  Sire,  we  come  to  resign  our  commissions  into  your  hands 
and  to  suffer  all  that  it  may  please  you  rather  than  offend 
against  our  consciences.” 

And  the  King,  declaring  himself  delighted  to  have  such 
magistrates,  put  the  edicts  back  in  his  pocket.  In  conclusion, 
Comines,  whose  chronicle  does  for  Louis  XI  what  that  of 
Joinville  does  for  Saint  Louis — each  of  the  two  princes  found 
a  biographer  well  adapted  to  his  character — Comines  judged 
the  King,  his  master,  as  follows  : 

44  In  all  (the  princes  of  his  time)  there  was  some  good  and 
some  evil,  but  without  having  recourse  to  any  flattery,  there 
were  in  him  far  more  of  the  qualities  appertaining  to  the 
office  of  king  and  prince  than  in  any  other.  I  have  seen 
them  nearly  all  and  know  their  abilities.” 

Louis  XI  spent  the  last  days  of  his  life  in  the  castle  of 
Plessis,  which  he  had  had  arranged  for  him  near  Tours.  The 
fear  of  death,  mingled  with  the  most  grotesque  terrors,  haunted 
him  more  and  more  strangely.  He  had  had  44  his  house  of 
Plessis-lès-Tours  closed  with  great  iron  bars  in  the  form  of 
gratings,  and,  at  the  four  corners  of  the  house,  four  bastions 
of  iron,  good,  big,  and  thick.  The  said  gratings  were  against 
the  wall  at  the  side  of  the  fortress,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
moat,  for  it  was  a  flat-bottomed  moat  ;  and  he  had  put  there 
several  iron  pegs,  built  into  the  wall,  with  three  or  four  points, 
and  had  them  put  very  close  to  one  another.  And  he  placed 
ten  bowmen  within  the  said  ditches,  to  draw  on  those  who 
approached  before  the  door  was  opened,  and  he  saw  that, 
they  slept  in  the  aforesaid  iron  bastions.” 

The  gate  of  the  castle  of  Plessis  was  opened  onlv  at  eight 

548 


A  MODERN  KING:  LOUIS  XI 


o’clock  in  the  morning,  to  shut  again  at  dusk.  Only  a  few 
people  went  in,  people  anxiously  chosen  by  the  voluntary 
prisoner.  “  The  cages  in  which  he  had  kept  others,”  says 
Comines  once  more,  “  were  about  eight  feet  square,  and  he, 
who  was  so  great  a  King,  had  a  very  little  castle  courtyard 
in  which  to  take  his  walks.”  He  was  particularly  suspicious 
of  his  son,  of  his  daughter  Anne,  and  of  his  son-in-law,  the 
Sire  of  Beaujeu. 

He  wanted  to  defer  the  day  of  his  death.  Not  only  the 
Pope,  but  the  Grand  Turk  sent  him  some  relics.  The  holy 
ampulla  of  Reims,  “  which  had  never  been  moved  from  its 
place,”  was  brought  to  him  in  his  room.  He  brought  from 
Italy  the  holy  hermit  Francesco  de  Paolo. 

His  last  hour  sounded  on  the  31st  August  1483. 

The  work  of  this  King,  small  in  body  and  morbid  in 
mind,  was  immense.  He  had  indeed  been  the  man  necessary 
to  end  the  Middle  Ages  for  France  and  lead  her  to  the  new  age, 
in  which  our  country  will  continue  to  play  a  part  worthy  of 
its  magnificent  past  :  the  constant  source  of  modern  civiliza¬ 
tion.  In  giving  back  to  the  Crown  Burgundy  and  Picardy,  in 
giving  to  it  Franche-Comté,  Provence,  and  Roussillon,  Louis  XI 
continued  splendidly  the  work  of  his  predecessors,  as  well  as 
their  administrative  activity.  The  Renaissance  is  announced. 
Villon,  while  yet  using  the  language  and  forms  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  is  already  a  modern  poet.  In  him  sings  the  soul  of 
Verlaine.  And  now  comes  printing.  The  Mohammedans  are 
driven  from  Spain  by  Ferdinand  the  Catholic,  but  Constanti¬ 
nople  falls  under  the  Empire  of  the  Turks.  The  Portuguese 
are  about  to  discover  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  (1486),  and 
Christopher  Columbus  catches  sight  of  the  horizon-blue  line 
of  the  American  coast  on  the  14th  October  1492.  A  new 
world  shines  in  a  clear  dawn  ;  but  its  splendours  will  not  efface 
the  fecund  beauty  of  the  centuries  of  Philip  Augustus  and 
Saint  Louis,  to  which  in  all  history  there  is  only  to  compare 
the  century  of  Sophocles,  Phidias,  and  Pericles. 

Sources. — Lettres  de  Louis  XI,  ed.  Et.  Charavay  and  J.  Vaesen, 
1883-1905,  9  vols.  ;  Mémoires  de  Comines,  ed.  Mlle  Dupont,  1840-47, 
3  vols.  ;  Mémoires  d'Olivier  de  la  Marche,  ed.  Beaune  and  d’Arbaumont, 
1883-88,  4  vols.  ;  Journal  de  J.  de  Roye ,  ed.  B.  de  Mandroit,  1894-96, 

549 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


2  vols.  ;  Chronique  de  Chastellain ,  ed.  Kervyn  de  Lettenhove,  1863-68  ; 
Chronique  de  Molinet,  ed.  Buchon,  1827-28,  5  vols.  ;  Histoire  de  Thomas 
Basin ,  ed.  Quicherat,  1855-59,  4  vols.  ;  Jehan  Marcellin,  Journal  des  Etais 
généraux  de  Tours,  ed.  A.  Bernier,  1835. 

Historical  Works. — Petit-Dutaillis  in  the  Histoire  de  France ,  ed.  E. 
Lavisse,  iv.,  1902  ;  (Maxime  Petit),  Histoire  de  France  Illustrée  (Larousse), 
undated,  4to  ;  P.  Champion,  François  Villon,  1913  ;  A.  Kleinclauz, 
Histoire  de  Bourgogne,  1909  ;  Lecoy  de  la  Marche,  Louis  XI  et  la  Succession 
de  Provence,  1888  ;  Michelet,  Louis  XI  et  Charles  le  Téméraire ,  1857  ;  H. 
Sée,  Louis  XI  et  les  Villes,  1891  ;  H.  Stein,  Charles  de  France,  frère  de 
Louis  XI,  1921  ;  Marcel  Thibault,  La  Jeunesse  de  Louis  XI,  1423-46, 
1907. 


550 


INDEX 


Acre,  siege  of,  255. 

Adèle  de  Champagne,  246,  247. 
Adhémar  de  Monteil,  109,  110,  114, 

119. 

Agincourt,  battle  of,  497. 

Agnes  Sorrel,  529. 

Aimerides,  cycle  of,  53, 

Albert  of  Austria,  385. 

Albigenses,  269. 

Alexius,  Emperor,  101,  105,  106,  107, 
ni,  117. 

Alods,  freeholds,  13. 

Amiens,  Treaty  of,  296. 

Antioch,  100,  112,  114,  115,  116,  117, 
119. 

Aragon  Expedition,  319. 

Ardres,  formation  of,  23. 

Arles,  formation  of,  33. 

Arnaud,  Daniel,  troubadour,  195. 

Arras,  Treaty  of,  526,  534,  540. 

Arthur  of  Brittany,  claims  English 
throne,  259  ;  is  defeated  and 
assassinated,  263. 

Association  of  Peace,  peace  of  God, 
161. 

Association  of  Peace,  truce  of  God, 
161. 

Association  of  Peace,  “  Quarantine  ”  of 
the  King,  161. 

Auvergne,  war  in,  1 36. 

Avoues,  365. 

Baillis,  284,  358,  359. 

Baldwin  of  Boulogne,  108,  113,  114, 
123. 

Baldwin  of  Flanders,  78,  79,  89. 
Barbarossa,  Emperor  of  Germany, 
252,  253. 

Barbary  pirates,  crusade  against,  487. 
Beadles,  function  of,  358. 

Beauvais,  Bishop  of,  Philippe  de  Dreux, 
257,  278. 

Beauvais,  commune  of,  152. 

Becket,  Thomas,  245,  246,  247. 

Bernard,  St.,  243. 

Bernard  d' Armagnac,  493,  498,  500. 
Bertha,  wife  of  Philip  I,  90. 

Berthe  de  Bourgoyne,  73. 

Bertrade  de  Montfort,  90,  91,  97. 


Bertrand  de  Bar-sur-Aube,  59,  60. 

Bertrand  de  Born,  170,  195,  196. 

Bertrand  du  Guesclin,  460,  461,  477, 
478,  480,  481,  483,  484. 

Beyles,  358. 

Black  Death,  446. 

Black  Prince,  451,  455,  458,  478,  479, 
480,  483. 

Blanche  of  Castile,  262,  289,  290,  291, 
292,  298,  303,  315. 

Boemund,  Prince  of  Tarento,  108,  114, 
115,  116,  117,  118,  123. 

Boileau  Etienne,  Book  of  1  rades,  343, 
344.  347- 

Boniface  VIII,  202  ;  character,  377, 
378  ;  elected,  379  ;  conflict  with 
Philip  IV,  382,  383  ;  crusades 

against  Aragonese  of  Sicily  and 
Colonna  family,  383,  384  ;  refusal 
to  ratify  election  of  Albert  King  of 
Germany,  385  ;  interview  with 
Nogaret,  who  explains  policy  of 
Philip  IV,  386,  387  ;  he  addresses 
Bull  to  Philip  IV,  387,  388,  389  ; 
he  addresses  Bull  to  all  Christendom, 
394  ;  Council  appealed  to  by  King 
of  France  to  depose  him,  395  ;  his 
palace  is  attacked  by  band  of 
Italians  and  Nogaret,  399  ;  Nogaret 
informs  him  that  he  is  accused  of 
heresy,  400  ;  he  is  brought  to  Rome, 
where  he  dies,  401,  402. 

Book  of  Trades,  Etienne  Boileau,  343. 

Bourges,  peace  of,  495. 

Bouvines,  battle  of,  279. 

Bretigny,  peace  of,  471,  472,  473,  475, 

477.  479-  . 

Bruges,  matins,  392. 

Butler,  office  of,  41. 

Calais,  siege  of,  444. 

Capet,  Hugh,  36  ;  is  elected  king,  37  ; 
proclaimed  king,  38  ;  reason  of  his 
election,  44  ;  his  coronation  oath, 
45  ;  has  his  son  crowned,  46  ;  his 
character  and  death,  47. 

Castillon,  battle  of,  528. 

Castles,  description  of  life  in,  164,  165, 
166. 

551 


INDEX 


Cathari,  the,  269. 

Chalus-en-Limousin,  siege  of,  258. 

Chamberlain,  office  of,  39,  41. 

Champenois,  faction  of,  251. 

Chancellor  Grand,  office  of,  42. 

Chanson  de  Roland,  epic  poem,  54,  55 
56. 

Chanson  de  Guillaume,  epic  poem,  54, 
57»  58. 

Charles  IV,  the  Fair,  429. 

Charles  V,  opposes  Etienne  Marcel, 
463  ;  assumes  style  of  Regent,  464  ; 
leaves  Paris  for  Meaux  and  Sens, 
465  ;  re-enters  Paris,  470  ;  equips  a 
fleet  to  make  war  on  England,  471. 
472  ;  ascends  throne,  476  ;  re¬ 
sumes  war  with  England,  480  ;  con¬ 
flicts  at  sea,  481  ;  efforts  towards 
peace,  482  ;  concludes  truce,  483  ; 
his  financial  administration  and 
death,  485. 

Charles  VI,  revolutionary  disturbance, 

485  ;  renews  war  with  England, 

486  ;  is  seized  with  madness,  488  ; 
delegation  of  authority  to  Queen 
Isabel,  491  ;  is  tended  by  Odette  de 
Champdivers,  492  ;  his  death,  504. 

Charles  VII,  his  birth,  491  ;  nominated 
lieutenant-general  of  kingdom,  flees 
from  Paris,  499  ;  reorganises  army 
after  Agincourt  and  retakes 
Etampes,  501  ;  he  meets  John  the 
Fearless  at  Montereau-fault-Yonne, 
where  the  latter  is  killed,  502  ;  pro¬ 
claimed  king  at  Bourges,  505  ;  re¬ 
ceives  Jeanne  d’Arc,  513  ;  gives  her 
rank  of  war  leader,  514  ;  consecra¬ 
tion  at  Reims,  519  ;  is  anxious  for 
peace  but  opposed  by  Jeanne,  520, 
521,  522  ;  is  reconciled  with  Duke 
of  Burgundy,  526  ;  Treaty  of  Arras, 
526  ;  battles  of  Formigny  and 
Castillon,  528  ;  his  government,  529, 
«530,  531  ;  fear  of  his  son,  533. 
Charles  d'Albret,  497. 

Charles  of  Blois,  443,  460,  474. 

Charles  of  Navarre,  the  Bad,  claims 
French  throne,  453  ;  assassinates 
Charles  of  Spain  and  is  imprisoned 
by  John  II,  454  ;  is  released  and 
reconciled  to  Regent  Charles  V,  462  ; 
re-enters  Paris,  464  ;  negotiates  with 
Charles  V  on  behalf  of  people  of 
Paris,  465  ;  crushes  the  Jacquerie 
rising,  466  ;  becomes  captain  of  men 
of  Paris,  466,  467,  468  ;  makes 

treaty  of  friendship  with  Charles  V, 
471  ;  exchanges  domain  for  lordship 
of  Montpelier,  477. 

Charles  of  Orleans,  493,  495,  497. 

552 


Charles  of  Spain  constable,  449,  454. 
Charles  of  Valois,  423,  427. 
Charpentier,  le,  115. 

Chateauroux,  Treaty  of,  253  . 

Chivalry,  institution  of,  162. 
Cistercians,  69. 

Clement  V,  404. 

Clermont,  council  of,  101. 

Cluny,  Order  of,  influence  and  work, 
69,  70,  94,  95  ;  schools,  199  ;  archi¬ 
tecture,  215. 

Colleges,  foundation  of,  210. 
Compiègne,  siege  of,  523,  524,  525. 
Conflans,  Treaty  of,  536. 

Constance,  wife  of  Robert  the  Pious, 
74»  75- 

Corbeil,  Treaty  of,  316. 

Coucy,  22. 

Courtrai,  363,  392,  393. 

Crown,  the,  meaning  of  term,  39. 
Crusades,  First,  101. 

,,  Second,  243. 

„  Third,  253. 

,,  Fourth,  265. 

,,  Egyptian,  304. 

„  of  Tunis,  317. 

Damietta,  capture  of,  306. 

Dampierre,  Guy  de,  372,  373,  374,  375, 
376. 

Dominicans,  69. 

Edward  the  Confessor,  87. 

Edward  I  of  England,  364,  365,  371, 
372,  373.  375»  433- 

Edward  III  of  England,  433,  435,  436, 

437»  439,  441,  442»  45L  454»  47L 
472,  481,  482,  483. 

Eleanor  of  Aquitaine,  241,  242,  244. 
Enguerran  Le  Portier  de  Marigny,  405, 
406,  418,  424. 

Eschevinages,  formation  of,  340. 
Etaples,  Treaty  of,  529. 

Etienne  Boileau,  book  of  trades,  343, 
344- 

Etienne  Marcel,  451,  457,  461,  462, 
463,  464,  465,  466,  467,  468,  469. 
Eude,  son  of  Robert  the  Strong,  35. 
Eustace  of  Boulogne,  108. 

Famines,  75,  76,  100,  103,  115,  117, 
446. 

Fiefs,  10,  11,  12,  13,  19,  34. 

Fight  of  the  Thirty,  449. 

Fillettes  du  roi,  547. 

Fortress,  castle,  20,  21,  22,  26,  27. 
Foulque  le  Rechin,  90,  91. 

Franciscans,  69. 

Fulk,  Vicar  of  Neuilly  sur  Marne, 
265. 


INDEX 


Garlands,  jean  de,  344. 

Gaudry,  Bishop  of  Laon,  148,  149,  150. 

Geoffrey,  Count  of  Anjou,  139,  242, 
244. 

Gerbert,  37,  65,  66,  74,  199. 

Gilles  de  Rome,  Egidio  Colonna,  384. 

Giraud  de  Bornelh,  troubadour,  195. 

Gisors,  245,  246,  258. 

Godfrey  de  Bouillon,  108,  no,  112, 
116,  122,  123. 

Gothic  style  of  architecture,  219,  220, 
221,  222,  223,  226  ;  ornamentation 
of,  227,  228,  229,  230,  231. 

Grandson,  battle  of,  540. 

Graville  in  Maine,  battle  of,  509. 

Great  schism,  483,  484. 

Gregory  V,  Pope,  73. 

Gregory  VII,  85,  93. 

Guérin  Brother,  the  Hospitaller,  285, 
287,  289. 

Guilds,  formation  of,  337. 

Guillaume  de  Julien,  390,  391,  392, 
402,  403. 

Guillaume  de  Nogaret,  361,  386,  387, 
396,  397*  398,  399~4°2*  411*  4l8* 
4X9* 

Hanses,  formation  of,  337. 

Harold  II  of  England,  87,  88. 

Henry  I,  conflict  with  his  brothers, 
76  ;  war  with  Normandy  and  opposi¬ 
tion  to  clergy,  77  ;  marriage  and 
death,  78. 

Henry  Beauclerc,  89,  90,  129,  133,  138, 
139,  148,  171. 

Henry  Plantagenet,  21 1  ;  conflict  with 
Louis  VII,  244,  245,  246,  247  ; 

increase  of  power  in  France,  251  ; 
trouble  with  sons,  253  ;  reconcilia¬ 
tion  with  Philip  Augustus,  253  ; 
preparation  for  Crusade  and  death, 
254*  255- 

Henry  III  of  England,  286,  296,  297. 

Henry  IV  of  England,  491,  496. 

Henry  V  of  England,  496,  497,  504. 

Henry  V  of  Germany,  93,  133,  135. 

Hericon,  the,  5. 

Herrings,  battle  of,  513. 

Honoré,  miniaturist,  332. 

Hugh  du  Puiset,  128,  129. 

Hugh  the  Fair,  36. 

Ingeburg  of  Denmark,  260,  261,  263, 
264,  265  ;  psalter  of,  322. 

Innocent  III,  264,  286. 

Inquisitor- reformers,  363. 

Institution  of  St.  Louis,  302. 

Isabel  of  Bavaria,  486,  487,  491,  492, 

5QI-  . 

Isabella  of  Hainault,  251,  252. 

2 


Jacquerie,  the,  465,  466. 

Jacques  van  Artevelde,  437,  441,  442. 

Jacobins,  361,  362. 

Jean  II,  the  Good,  448  ;  has  Constable 
of  France  seized  and  beheaded  and 
gives  office  to  Charles  of  Spain,  448, 
449  ;  debases  currency,  449,  450  ; 
struggle  with  Charles  of  Navarre, 
453*  454  i  is  taken  prisoner  in  battle 
of  Poitiers,  455,  456  ;  release  and 
return  to  France,  472,  473  ;  return 
to  England,  and  death  in  London, 
476. 

Jean  d' Armagnac,  479,  480. 

Jean  de  Garlande,  344. 

Jean  de  Luxembourg,  524. 

Jean  de  Montfort,  443,  449. 

Jean  de  Montroyal,  brother,  413. 

Jean  Pucelle,  miniaturist,  332,  333. 

Jeanne  of  Navarre,  416,  417. 

Jeanne  d’Arc,  hears  voices,  51 1,  512; 
is  taken  to  Charles  VII,  513  ;  re¬ 
ceives  rank  of  war  leader,  514,  515  ; 
her  boldness  and  courage,  516  ; 
raises  siege  of  Orleans,  517  ;  battle 
of  Patay,  518  ;  consecration  of 
Charles  VII  at  Reims,  519  ;  lays 
siege  to  St.  Pierre  de  Montier,  520  ; 
her  further  exploits,  521,  522,  523  ; 
is  taken  prisoner,  tried  at  Rouen, 
and  executed,  504,  525. 

Jeanne  Hachette,  539. 

John,  King  of  Bohemia,  444. 

John  Lackland,  254,  259,  263,  278,  279, 
283,  284,  285,  286. 

John  the  Fearless,  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
492,  493.  495.  499,  5°L  502. 

Keeps,  16,  17,  21,  26. 

Knights,  43,  162,  163,  361. 

Laon,  145,  147,  148,  149,  150,  151,  157. 

Lateran,  council  of,  276. 

League  of  the  Public  Weal,  535,  539. 

Legists,  361,  362. 

Le  Mans,  commune  of,  147. 

Leopold,  Duke  of  Austria,  256. 

Liège,  revolt  of  people  of,  537. 

Lignages,  29. 

Lincoln,  battle  of,  286. 

Lorris-en-Gâtinais,  charter  granted  to, 
157- 

Lothaire,  36,  37. 

Louis  VI,  Le  Gros,  126  ;  reduces 
feudal  lords,  127,  128,  129,  130  ; 
gains  victory  over  Germany,  133, 
134,  135,  136  ;  besieges  Montferrand, 
136  ;  appoints  new  Count  of 
Flanders  and  goes  to  war  with 
England,  137,  138  ;  failure  and 

N  553 


INDEX 


death,  139,  140  ;  his  attitude  to¬ 
wards  communes,  142,  143. 

Louis  VII  Le  Jeune,  his  accession  and 
marriage  with  Eleanor  of  Aquitaine, 
241  ;  his  struggle  against  feuda¬ 
tories,  242  ;  takes  part  in  second 
Crusade,  243  ;  divorces  Queen 
Eleanor,  244  ;  conflict  with  English 
Crown,  244,  245  ;  marries  Adèle  de 
Champagne,  246  ;  birth  of  Philip 
Augustus,  247  ;  character  and  death, 
248. 

Louis  VIII  prepares  to  claim  English 
throne,  268  ;  lands  in  England,  is 
defeated  at  Lincoln  and  signs  treaty- 
renouncing  his  claim,  286  ;  succeeds 
his  father,  invasion  of  Aquitaine, 
war  against  Albigenses  and  death, 
287,  288. 

Louis  IX,  St.  Louis,  289,  292,  293  ; 
government,  294,  295,  296  ;  war  with 
England,  297  ;  his  religious  faith 
and  conduct,  298,  299,  300,  301, 
302,  303  ;  Egyptian  crusade,  304- 
15  ;  returns  to  France,  makes 
treaty  with  King  of  Aragon,  316  ; 
crusade  of  Tunis  and  death,  317, 
318  ;  kindness  to  minstrels,  189. 

Louis  X,  423  ;  campaign  in  Flanders, 
425,  427  ;  gives  charters  to  pro¬ 
vinces,  425,  426  ;  death,  427. 

Louis  XI,  hostility  to  father  and 
friendship  with  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
533  ;  reverses  policy  of  father,  534  ; 
struggle  with  Charles  the  Bold,  535, 

536,  537.  538,  539,  540,  54L  542, 
543  ;  financial  administration  and 
rule,  545,  546,  547  ;  piety,  547  ; 
fear  of  death  and  end,  548,  549. 

Louis,  Duke  of  Anjou,  486,  490. 

Louis  de  Nevers,  Count  of  Flanders, 
437- 

Louis  of  Orleans,  489,  490,  491,  492, 
493- 

Luke  de  la  Barre-sur-Ouche,  171. 

Magistrat,  authority  of  341. 

Marie  of  Burgundy,  542,  543,  544. 

Marigny,  Enguerran  de,  405,  406,  418, 
424- 

Mar  le,  Ihomas  de,  150,  151. 

Marque,  letters  of,  368,  369. 

Matilda  of  Flanders,  86,  89,  90. 

Meilhan-en-Bazadais,  28. 

Mercadier,  256,  257,  258,  259. 

Mesnie,  8,  9,  28,  29,  34,  42,  43,  68. 

Metz,  formation  of,  33. 

Miniaturists,  growth  of  the  art,  321. 

,,  preparation  of  colours, 

324,  325,  326. 


Miniaturists,  rules,  323. 

,,  statutes,  331. 

Mirabeau,  263. 

Molay,  Grand  Master  Jacques  de,  415. 
Montreuil-sur-Mer,  treaty  of,  433. 
Montroyat,  Jean  de,  413. 

Mont  St.  Michel,  460,  461. 

Morat,  battle  of,  540. 

Mottes,  fortified  mounds,  5,  6,  7,  19. 

Nancy,  battle  of,  541. 

Nicolas,  Miniaturist,  332. 

Nogaret,  Guillaume  de,  361,  386,  387, 

396,  397.  398,  399,  4°°,  4GI,  4°2, 
411,  418,  419. 

Notre  Dame,  church  of,  220,  224,  232. 
Noyon,  Cathedral  of,  219. 

Odette  de  Champdivers,  492. 
Ordonnance  Cabochienne,  494. 
Oriflamme,  the,  133,  134. 
Ornamentation  of  churches,  227. 
Orleans,  relief  of,  518. 

Otto  VI  of  Brunswick,  278,  281,  282, 
283. 

Pantler,  Grand,  office  of,  42. 

Parages,  29. 

Paris,  formation  of,  277. 

,,  improvements  to,  286,  287. 

„  treaty  of  (1229),  290,  433  ;  (1303), 
395,  433- 

,,  university  of,  200,  201,  202,  206, 
208,  211,  494,  524. 

Paschall  II,  94. 

Patay,  518. 

Pedro  the  Cruel,  447,  448. 

Pèlerinage  de  Charlemagne,  54,  58. 
Peter  Barthélémy,  118,  119,  120. 

Peter  the  Hermit,  101  ;  preaches 
Crusade,  102  ;  sets  out  and  crosses 
Europe,  103,  104,  105  ;  is  defeated 
by  Turks,  106,  107  ;  attempts  to 
desert,  115  ;  relieves  sufferings  of 
crusaders,  116  ;  returns  to  Europe 
and  dies,  123. 

Peyre,  Cardinal,  troubadour,  196. 
Philip  I,  accession  of,  78  ;  acquire¬ 
ment  of  Keep  of  Montlhérv,  83,  84  ; 
attitude  towards  Union  of  England 
and  Normandy,  89  ;  marriage  with 
Bertrade  de  Montfort,  90,  91  ;  con¬ 
flict  with  Holy  See,  91,  92,  96  ; 
strengthening  power  in  royal  domain, 

96  ;  administration  of  palace,  96, 

97  ;  death,  97  ;  mentioned,  124. 
Philip  Augustus,  birth,  247  ;  acces¬ 
sion,  250  ;  marriage,  251  ;  struggle 
with  coalition  of  nobles,  252  ;  re¬ 
conciliation  with  Henry  II,  253, 


554 


INDEX 


254  ;  departure  for  Holy  Land  with 
Richard  Cœur  de  Lion  and  siege 
of  Acre,  255  ;  war  with  Richard 
Cœur  de  Lion  and  Mercadier,  256, 
257,  258  ;  marriage  to  Ingeburg  of 
Denmark  and  dissolution  of,  260, 
261,  264  ;  marriage  to  Agnes  de 
Meranie  and  interdict,  262  ;  con¬ 
quest  of  Normandy,  263  ;  Fourth 
Crusade,  265,  266,  267  ;  battle  of 
Bouvines,  279,  280,  281,  282,  283  ; 
financial  policy,  285  ;  death,  287  ; 
mentioned,  20,  21,  38. 

Philip  III,  the  Bold,  318  ;  division 
of  heritage  of  Alfonso,  Aragon  ex¬ 
pedition  and  death,  319. 

Philip  IV,  the  Fair,  simple  habits  of 
life  and  dress,  352,  353,  354  ;  mutual 
confidence  between  himself  and  his 
people,  360  ;  legists  chosen  from 
middle  classes,  362  ;  homage  of 
Edward  I  and  new  treaty  with 
Crown  of  England,  364  ;  exercises 
rights  of  suzerainty  and  summons 
Edward  to  appear  to  justify  de¬ 
predations  by  English  sailors,  370  ; 
confiscates  lands  held  by  English 
Crown,  371  ;  invades  English  pro¬ 
vinces,  372  ;  treatment  of  Guy  de 
Dampierre,  374  ;  war  with  Edward  I, 
374  ;  conflict  with  Boniface  VIII, 
380,  381,  382,  383  384,  385  ; 

Courtrai,  392,  393  ;  Mons  en  Pevele, 
402,  403  ;  financial  administration, 
404,  405,  406,  407  ;  conflict  with 
Templars,  410,  411,  412,  413,  414, 
415,  416  ;  failure  and  death,  418, 
4T9- 

Philip  of  Valois,  432  ;  claims  homage 
from  Edward  III,  435  ;  marches 
against  blemish,  435  ;  victory  at 
Cassel,  436  ;  receives  homage  of 
Edward  III,  436  ;  summons  Edward 
to  deliver  up  Robert  of  Artois,  437  ; 
on  refusal  war  breaks  out,  437  ; 
Crecy,  443,  444  ;  fall  of  Calais 

and  remonstrance  to  Philip  by 
Commoners,  445  ;  acquisition  of 
Dauphiné,  447  ;  death,  448  ;  men¬ 
tioned,  459. 

Philip  the  Bold,  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
486,  489,  491,  492. 

Philip  the  Good,  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
5°2,  523>  536. 

Philip  the  Tall,  427  ;  struggle  with 
Burgundians,  428  ;  death,  429. 

Pierre  Cauchon,  494. 

Pierre  Flote,  legist,  362,  363,  382, 
388,  389,  392,  393. 

Poitiers,  battle  of,  455,  456. 


Poursuivants,  43,  167,  168. 

Provosts,  97,  358. 

Raimond  de  St.  Gilles,  108,  114. 

Rectors,  appointment  of,  207. 

Richard  Cœur  de  Lion,  192,  255,  258, 
259- 

Richard  II  of  England,  483,  490,  491. 

Robert  II,  39. 

Robert  le  Diable,  77,  86,  99. 

Robert  of  Artois,  375,  392,  436,  437. 

Robert  of  Flanders,  108. 

Robert  Guiscard,  84,  85. 

Robert  of  Normandy,  Short  Hose,  89  ; 
90,  108,  116,  148. 

Robert  the  Pious,  accession,  65  , 
education  of  Gerbert,  66  ;  character 
and  rule,  67,  68  ;  knowledge  of 
ecclesiastical  law,  70  ;  repression  of 
heresy,  71  ;  conflict  with  Roman 
Court  on  question  of  marriage  with 
Berthe  de  Bourgoyne,  72,  73,  74  ; 
foreign  policy,  75. 

Romanesque  style  of  architecture,  213, 
214,  224. 

Rouen,  council  of,  358. 

Royalists,  361. 

Rozala,  wife  of  Robert  the  Pious,  72, 
73- 

Sainte  Chapelle,  224. 

St.  Orner,  fraternity  of,  340. 

St.  Remy  at  Reims,  building  of,  217. 

St.  Riquier,  22. 

St.  Romain  le  Puy,  structure  of,  23. 

Seneschal,  office  of,  40,  41,  167,  358. 

Senlac,  battle  of,  87. 

Serfs,  13,  14,  15,  16. 

Sergeants,  43,  358. 

Sicilies,  Norman  kingdom  of,  85. 

Simon  de  Montfort  l’Amaury,  272,  273, 
274,  275,  276,  277. 

Sorbonne,  210. 

Squires,  43,  167,  168. 

Stained  glass,  introduction  of,  233. 

Stephen,  Count  of  Blois,  117. 

Stephen  de  Garlande,  130. 

Strikes,  350. 

Suger,  Abbot  of  St.  Denis,  128,  129, 
130,  131,  132,  241,  244. 

Surveyors,  office  of,  97. 

Tafur,  King,  115. 

Taillebourg,  battle  of,  297. 

Tancred,  Duke  of  Pouille,  108,  113, 
114,  116. 

Tancrede  de  Hauteville,  84,  85. 

Tenchebrai,  battle  of,  90. 

Thibaud  de  Champagne,  290,  291,  292, 


INDEX 


Thibaud  le  Chansonnier,  290,  291, 
292. 

Thierry  d'Alsace,  137,  138. 

Tournai,  fraternity  of,  340. 

Tours,  council  of,  270. 

,,  formation  of,  31. 

Trade  Societies,  343. 

Troyes,  council  of,  96,  408. 

Troyes,  Treaty  of,  503. 

Tunis,  siege  of,  318. 

Urban  II,  91,  94,  95,  101,  103. 

Valenciennes,  fraternity  of,  338,  339. 


Vaudois,  the,  269,  270,  271. 

Verneuil,  battle  of,  509,  510. 

Vernon,  truce  of,  258. 

Verzy,  council  of,  70,  91. 

Vezelay,  council  of,  243. 

Villehardouin,  266,  267,  268. 
Vyve-Saint-Bavon,  truce  of,  377. 

Walter  the  Penniless,  104,  106,  107. 
William  Clito,  137,  138,  139. 

William,  Duke  of  Aquitaine,  136,  137. 
William  of  Normandy,  77,  86,  87,  88, 
89.  90,  99- 

William  the  Red,  89,  90. 


PRINTED  BY  MORRISON  AND  GIBB  LIMITED,  EDINBURGH 


Date  Due 

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